An Early Learners Project

Structure, Sculpture and Observation:
Building "Boy" and "Girl"

A challenge to the children: Create a person with clay that can stand.

In October the party people are born. The children in the class created over 25 party people with clay. They found that some could stand alone, but some could not. We began to add toothpicks or “bones” to our creations to give them structure. A discussion of structure and the human skeleton grew out of our interest in the small clay sculptures.

We drew our understanding of our skeletal structure, identifying straight parts and bending parts.

A family brought in a skeleton from their home. We studied the skeleton to better understand the bones and joints of a person.

Another parent proposed that we make the experience relate to the children’s own bodies by actually identifying moving and straight parts visually, using markers. This was one of the major learning moments in the project for many of the children. They seemed to begin to really understand how the skeleton related to their own bodies and how their own structure worked. They felt the bones on their own bodies and on their friends' bodies and drew what they felt and saw. They drew pictures (on paper this time) at the end of the activity.

Their drawings showed their growing understanding of the structure within.

In our teacher planning meetings and parent meetings we discuss the work, words and questions of the children. We wonder how to make the experience and information more meaningful. Would it be more meaningful to create something large--something the size of the children? Could they relate their own structure to the structure of something they could create--could the abstraction become meaningful?

We contacted four clay companies and two, Chavant and Van Aken, each donated 40 pounds of clay to allow the children to extend their ideas, theories and questions. Boy and Girl began.

We researched sculpture and armatures to understand how we could create such a large piece. Our art teacher created a design to show the children and purchased plumbing pipes and joints to create the brace, backbone, shoulder and pelvis. These materials and the pipes were presented to the children. They were able to follow the design to create the beginnings of the armature.

We then added armature wire for the limbs. The children identified bending parts and straight parts. They measured their bodies so that they might put the bending parts in the right places. They then began to add plaster with the help of a parent. Boy and Girl began to take shape.

Children discussed the positions they would stand in, as they understood that unlike our bodies, boy and girl would not be able to move. This was a source of excitement and silliness for the children.

Plastering took a long time--weeks. The most challenging aspect were the hands and the feet. Children used their own bodies as guides.

By spring we were ready to begin adding clay. This process was slow, as the small hands struggled to manipulate the sometimes hard clay. A few children were completely dedicated to this part of the project, and boy and girl finally had skin. The armatures disappeared forever. The study of structure seemed to come to a conclusion as the clay covered the armature. A new project seemed to immerge.

Our focused changed to discovering the detail in our own faces and bodies and understanding the clay and the tools in this new context.

We visited public sculptures. We brought our tools with us to try and understand how they might have been used to create things like eyes, hair and clothing.

Children began to add detail and the sculptures began to have a personality--a life that the children were giving them.

We studied our own faces using photographs and mirrors. These were an important tool for the children when the features of Boy and Girl actually began to take shape.

The children's attention to detail was astounding. Our art teacher helped the children decide how changes would be made. This picture shows a child revising the nose that had been made by someone else the day before. She was required to find the first child and suggest changes to him before she could make the new nose.

Today Boy and Girl have shape and form. They have become members of our community. The children are quite protective of them and proud of this incredible accomplishment.

It is a new year. We have talked as a community about bronzing these pieces, as they will only last in their current form for about three years. So, we move into a new stage of the project – and we all continue to learn from and with Boy and Girl about the incredible capacity of young children, and about new possibilities.

We are indebted to Van Aken and Chavant for their generous contribution of clay to this project. Visit their websites at www.vanaken.com and www.chavant.com.