How often do we get the opportunity to use our creativity without the constraints of specifications and boundaries? This week I offered the children a chance to create whatever they wanted out of a fantastic open medium. The only stipulation I made was they were to hunt for natural materials to decorate, embellish or transform their clay from mere grey sticky matter to a wonderful creation. What they made was up to them. It was interesting to see what each group brought to the activity throughout the week. Very often, one or two children would forge ahead with an idea, and the rest would follow. Others simply played with clay creating a variety of ‘things’ some relating to what the rest of the children were making, whilst others just explored the textures and malleability of the air drying clay. Some simple tools were available such as wooden rolling pins to aid their work.
Importantly there was no agenda for the children to make a finished article to take home and I stressed that if they didn’t want to make anything that was fine. This was much more about the process of how they got there and the theories behind it as well as learning about the materials they were utilising such as Ash Keys, dried Dock, dried Bay Leaves, grass, elder and bay twigs and Ivy berries. But children are proud and like to show off their hard work to you, the parents, so many of the children opted to make something to take home and I’m sure you’ll agree that they made some remarkable art, ranging from sandwiches to dragons, to butterflies and magic slugs. Fantastic stuff.
Enjoy the sunshine this weekend whilst it’s here, and see you all next week!
R. Fox
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p.s. Just a small reminder that we are running Forest School Holiday Club for 5-11s in February at Free Rangers and there are still places so please book if you’d like a place! Also for the younger 0-3s we have a FREE Stay and Play session at Brokerswood on Wednesday 20th Feb. Click on the highlighted links for more info!