Sculpting Stories

 Over the past three weeks children have been encouraged to explore sculpting with clay in Sunflower Class.

​First children were supported to explore the clay using their hands: preparing it by knocking it down, prodding, rolling, pressing and stretching.
Next, tools were introduced: children were shown how to use rollers, stamps and sticks.
As children worked on their pieces, they talked about their creations, what they were doing and engaged in lovely conversations with adults and each other.

Children sustained concentration over time and returned to embellish their sculptures.
They made choices and selected from a range of natural resources such as sticks and stones to some wooden lolly sticks and small mosaic tiles.  Children placed them and talked about their decisions. 

At Rachel Keeling, we have a workshop space which facilitates children's independence and agency. Children are able to choose when they would like to select their creations and work on them, making choices about next steps. Children returned to paint, embellish and make marks about their sculptures. Some of their ideas were scribed by an adult. 

Over time, some children created short stories about their sculptures: there were gingerbread men, monsters, dinosaurs, princess gardens, spiders on slides, dads in castles and a princess watching movies and eating crisps!

Playdough and clay is lovely to explore with your child: talk and play together and create your own stories.