CNY Grants for Arts in Education - art$TART

"Nature's Cycles in Clay" - Jowonio and ceramicists Erin Murphy and MaryFaith Decker

In our last project, we started exploring clay. We experienced many technical problems in the firing process. Erin stepped in for the completion of the 2007 mural. We wanted to continue that work from flat to dimensional ceramics.

The Big Idea: Cycles, not only the obvious egg to caterpillar to butterfly or tadpole to frog or phases of the moon, but cycles of learning. These cycles of learning occur artist to teacher, teacher to student, peer to peer, and importantly student to teacher. Cycles also appeared in working, drying and firing clay.

The challenges were how to instruct the technical processes while allowing the children to express their interests. The students as well as teachers needed to know how to work dimensionally in clay.

Left: A students discusses her work with the teaching artist. Above: 3-dimensional clay shapes.

The goal was to explore what young children can learn in an age appropriate way about expressing their knowledge in clay.

			Far left: a student draws at Beaver Lake. Center: Drawing from life in the classroom. Right top: a drawing of an insect. Right bottom: etched tiles.

Children began to discuss, draw, and model animals in the classroom and at Beaver Lake Nature Center. Classroom activities provided information that the children used when constructing habitats. This habitat building became a favorite activity and was visited and revisited in many materials and in different parts of the classroom.

Above left and far right: Students create animal habitats. Above right: Students line a birdbath with clay tiles.

The original idea for the project proved to have insurmountable technical difficulties, so the decision was make to switch to a simpler design and start over again. Observations from over 1,200 photographs, weekly planning discussions, teacher journal entries, class discussions, and children’s comments were invaluable to give insights into developing next steps. From simple play the children began to learn more about how to handle clay so that it would remain intact through the drying, firing, and glazing process.

Left: a student works on etching clay     Center: applying slip to a 3-D form           Right: applying glazes

Students were given experiences which built their competency so that by the end of the semester they were able to create bugs and critters to be placed in a display environment in the school’s front foyer. The lessons learned from this partnership: We are ready to continue the “culture of clay” for the next group of students. Our students will be able to create more complex forms and incorporate clay into classroom situations. Jowonio teachers are now equipped to teach the basics. We are looking for future partnership projects and continuing the work with Erin. Right: Part of the display in the school's foyer.