The Frog Blog: Mud Season

So often, the inspiration for our next curriculum journey comes from what is happening outside. Right now, the snow that we've grown so very tired of has finally started to take it's leave (Everybody, Quick! Knock some wood!)

As the snowbanks on our playground shrink, they leave us with this;

MUD!!!

Gorgeous, soupy, sticky mud!

We teacher's know that asking the kids to "Please stay out of the mud" is almost as futile (and borderline cruel after months of ice and snow), as saying "Please, don't eat the snow!"

Indeed, we take a similar approach to mud bathing as we did to snow eating; state the facts, ie. "if you eat the snow, it could get you sick/If you squish your hands in the mud, they will feel sticky." , then monitor the kids accordingly.

We also try to offer opportunities for the kids to enjoy this kind of sensory exploration in a different setting.

Last month, the Frogs were fascinated with painting. They explored foam paint, watercolors, tempera- you name it- and cranked out so many pieces, we scarcely had room to dry them all. This month, we wanted to challenge them to try and extend this prolific exploration to another medium.

With mud season at hand, Clay seemed like the perfect fit!

We started out by setting out lumps of self hardening Terra-cotta and a bunch of small, simple tools like toothpicks and Popsicle sticks. This is what happened;

"I'm making a birthday cake!"

"He's a porcupine!"

"Dinosaur"

The Frogs were especially inclined to embed as many toothpicks in each lump as they could possibly fit. They also were very into making a foray into representational art, making sure to tell us exactly what they made.

As we continued to invite the Frogs to work with the clay, we experimented with our presentation.

Instead of setting out lumps of clay, we rolled out pieces of slab for the children to work with. At first, we presented the clay slab without tools, just to see what the children would do. Just like the mud outside, they were compelled to poke, prod and make their mark with their very capable fingers;

'These are my guy's faces."

The next day, we put out clay slab and toothpicks to see what would happen. One of our most dedicated painters sat right down and made a discovery;

Toothpicks can work just like markers or paintbrushes!

Her discovery was immediately picked up by the rest of the group, who were now asking for clay slabs to work with almost every morning.

Now, here at Nonotuck, we are lucky enough to have a couple of fantastic resources; First, we have a dedicated art studio space that the children can use for projects that require a little more time, space, or focus. Next, we have Nort, our afternoon teacher, and Scott, our Chameleon (Four to Five year old) classroom teacher. Both Nort and Scott are accomplished ceramic artists in their own right, and we are so very fortunate that they just happen to love sharing their expertise and passion for this medium with children!

We made a plan to spend some time down in the art studio with Scott, Nort, and a few of the older kids at Nonotuck who were interested in working with clay. Nort set up a table with softer clay slabs, and various items, including rocks, plastic hammers, and rubber stamps alongside the more traditional clay tools.

Scott set up another table with clay squares that had dried to a leather-hard consistency. He set out a number of pointier tools, suitable for carving the denser clay.

Both teachers, along with their pre-school aged 'clay mentors' took their places at their respective tables, ready to provide reminders on safe tool usage and to assist the Frogs if needed. the Frogs settled right into the productive, creative vibe of the studio. They were respectful of the tools, and used them carefully and creatively to investigate the different clay bodies.

They gouged...