More clay with 2 year olds...

This was the first session where one of the two years did not just stare at the clay first and need my encouragement to start... this child explored straight away, while the other two watched.
Interestingly this child also finished exploring the clay quickly too - in fact I was really surprised because so far the clay has been a real concentration holder and social binder... but this child poked, prodded, pulled off a few chunks, smelled the clay and lay his forehead against the clay and then stood up and watched the others a few moments before deciding to go off and do something else...

The two children who observed first then explored for a long time, testing various techniques out... and were the first of the sessions to explore with their feet... after feeling the clay with their feet and commenting that it was cold they then started to put small pieces of clay on their feet and between their toes...

There was not the same social story telling in this session but there was plenty of copying each other as they tried out something new, and there was not one child that followed the other, but both inspired each other...

There are three sets of twins in Molnet - and they have all been put in separate small groups to work in the atelier on Thursday afternoons... this was the first time I have got to observe the other half of a twin set... and I have to admit there have been a few similarities... enough to make me wonder if, this coming week, when the other halves of the two remaining twin sets explore the clay if they will react in a similar way to their twin...

Having twins of my own probably makes me a little more curious about this sort of thing... I have always worked hard to ensure that my girls have seen themselves as two individuals who are twins and not as twins. I can see similarities and differences in my girls (who are now 13) - they are identical twins, so many others DO get them confused. Of the three sets in Molnet two of them are identical... in the preschool total there are four sets of twins - with another set of fraternal twins in Himlen. It means we have a lot of twins for a preschool of 35 children... but now I have left the subject of clay!!

So why not enjoy the images below...