Teach kids to care for their equipment while looking after the environment. Recycling clay saves money and conserves resources. Model minimisation of water wastage.
If you are living under drought restrictions it is a good opportunity to teach students about the exhaustibility of natural resources. They can see the water levels of local dams dropping by the day. They are experiencing rationing and can gain a sense of value for the importance of natural supplies.
When teaching students clay techniques programme recycling as a natural part of the lesson. Teach the students that firing every piece of work is not wise use of resources. This will encourage them to plan their designs so that only the very best will be fired. This will conserve the energy that fuels the kiln as well as maintain a plentiful supply of clay.
Here is a simple management strategy
- have an ice cream container in the centre of the table for scraps
- this container will also receive recyclables at the end of the lesson
- have a larger bucket to transferr scraps into at the end of the lesson
- appoint a monitor for every table
- ask them to be extra careful to gather all scraps and to make sure there are no contaminants
- ask a head monitor to top the water level of the larger bucket making sure there is only enough to cover the clay and no more
- explain to the students why you will not be washing the tables at the end of the lesson
- in conversation see if they will understand that by simply brushing scraps away the table tops are clean enough for the next class to do their clay work on
- tell them that you are planning your lessons so that clay classes come 'back to back' and that this is your way of conserving water.
- ask the students to brush all dry clay off their hands carefully so that they will not need to wash hands too thoroughly
- stay with them if they are little so that they do not have the taps running for too long
- or have a great big bowl of still water for them to wash their hands in first to take the main clay off by washing hands throroughly before washing quickly under taps
Recycle clay that has been soaking during class so that the students see what recycling really means
- once the lesson has started lay the wet clay out on sheets of news paper
- continually cut through with a wire and turned the clay
- knead it as you go (sheep's head knead)
- when the clay is consistently workable wrap it in cling wrap
- show the students each stage of this process and explain that the clay needs to be consistently wet and contains no air bubbles (explain that air bubbles will cause it to explode later in the firing stage)
If you continually recycle clay during class the students will soon gain an understanding of the process. If you have each student experience the process by helping you, or being in charge of recycling for the day, they may also realise that if recycling takes so much work it would be good not to take too much clay!
