The children in the Blue Gum Room have been introduced to a new art medium – clay. For some of the children, this was their first experience in touching clay. Clay is a wonderful medium for children to work with as it supports their sensory development, fine motor skills, self-esteem, self-expression and problem solving.

As the children manipulated the clay, they were asked “What does the clay feel like?” and “Where do you think clay comes from?”. The children in the Blue Gum room quickly became interested in exploring clay. We decided to incorporate this experience as a permanent feature of the program to allow children the opportunity to re-visit and discover the many ways in which clay can be manipulated.

The children in the Blue Gum Room in the St Catherine’s ELC have been introduced to clay.

A small interest in forming nests out of the clay has now transpired and drawn interest amongst the whole group to create one large bird’s nest together. The children have also collected small twigs from our playground and decided their nest also needs feathers and leaves “so it is warm and cosy for the birds”.

This small collaborative project has provided a wonderful opportunity for all the children’s thoughts and ideas to be shared.

The children in the Blue Gum Room have enjoyed creating a bird’s nests using clay.