Using local raw clay

One of the things we are dedicated to in our preschool is to be mindful of our sustainable practices. We are always striving to be thoughtful about the provenance of the resources we use with the children.

We have a permanent clay table at our preschool where our children get to freely explore and revisit working with clay. We provide plenty of space, time and opportunity for free investigation and creation using clay. It is a wonderful medium for the children to use for their artistic expression. The children are provided with real clay tools and we teach the children techniques to use the clay if they want to achieve a particular result.

Clay is relaxing for the children to work with and very pliable for small hands. We usually buy the clay from a local clay supplier but recently we were gifted a lot of clay from a local family’s backyard that backs onto bushland. The children have observed the difference and noticed that the raw clay has lots of rocks and natural materials throughout it. We have encouraged the children to work with the raw clay with all its uniqueness.

We have been experimenting with the clay and we are learning filtering processes with the children. We have soaked the rough clay, and then worked it, removing the natural materials in the clay, until it became smooth and workable clay. This has given us a wonderful opportunity to look at the difference between our refined clay and the raw clay that has come straight from the ground.

By Aimee Morrissey