The "Rainbow Elephant" Project

Children have an innate ability to be creative and questioning, and it is through practical clay building activities that their imagination will be explored in the creation of under-the-sea creatures.

Using illustrations from Graeme Base's The Sign of the Seahorse , children will develop their own creature which lives under the sea.

Objectives of this activity are -

Providing opportunities for children to:

•  Use a colour illustration to help you make your own original sea creature

•  Learn how to form clay with your hands from a chunk of clay

•  Learn to build on a clay structure

•  Learn to make a small pinch pot

•  Learn to roll clay coils and add to a mass of clay

Creatures created could be a fish, an octopus, a starfish, a seahorse, or a clam, which can be decorated with patterns, or painted at a later date once the clay has dried.

Children are given colour images of the illustrations and make their own choices as to which animal they would like to explore and create.

Demonstrations of the building of a seahorse, starfish, and octopus are given as a way to assist children in exploring their own skills.

It is the goal of this workshop that children will learn motor skills, as well as being able to express themselves through these learned skills and their own natural abilities.

~ Nicole Ireland ~