11 am Wonder Arts Class 5: Oil Pastels with Watercolor, Clay with tools in a whole group, Wire Sculpting

This being our 5th class, I am starting to notice the children really getting comfortable! In the beginning, some of the children seemed to rush through the experiences, eager to explore the room or play with the "transition toys". This week's class exhibited such long attention spans with each experience that it was hard to fit it all in. The room was so calm, the children were so focused and engaged, the parents seemed very relaxed as well. We did play background music in both classes and possibly that caused some of the intense concentration. But....after thinking about it more, I really think it is the gift of time. I used to tell parents that they needed to give their children a month or possibly two to get used to a new teacher, classroom, etc... This goes to show you that 5 weeks in, the group (both children and parents) is beginning this process!

My camera battery died right in the middle of class! I was not very happy! However, the parents happily took pictures and sent them to me via cell phone. My goal with the clay experience today was to observe how the children interacted with one another (as well as with the clay) when the clay was presented in small groups with the addition of pre-made balls and coils. New tools were set out, trucks, rolling pins, pizza cutters, along with the old favorites, tongue depressors and bottlecaps.

During the 9am class I set the clay up on separate tables in groups of 2 or 3. The children definitely observed one another and had a very long attention span. However, there was something with the set up that didn't encourage them to socialize as much as I had hoped. So... for the 2nd class, I set the tables up in an L shape with all of the materials sort of spread out. I didn't offer chairs at first because I hoped if the children had to stand they might move around and interact with one another more. I observed that while the children still maintained individual pieces or slabs of clay, they paid much more attention to each other. They were influenced by what they saw their peers doing. They shared tools and toys. I think this is a good first step to them perhaps starting to work on one piece together. As I stated before, the children were very focused and would have spent probably another 30 minutes playing if it hadn't been time to clean up.