Old Trail School Primary School students have embarked on a new tile project that has them using their fingers, bare feet and common items found in nature to create textures in clay.  Students go on outdoor walks collecting twigs, pinecones, acorns, pine needles and flowers to make impressions in clay.  They also take clay on their walks to take impressions of items found near the school which could include anything from bricks to animal footprints. 

The preschool, young 5s, kindergarten, first and second grade students are working on creating a welcoming wall mural to hang in the entrance hall of the Primary School.  It will be used to welcome visitors and members of the Old Trail School family as they move from the main school building to the Primary School. 

The mural will trace a journey along a garden path that travels through the seasons in Cuyahoga Valley National Park.  The journey will incorporate changes in color utilizing a variety of tile sizes and mirror pieces as well as shapes with added depth.  The alphabet and various components found in nature will also be depicted.  The mural will hang low on the wall so that students can touch and explore its many textures and shapes.  

The second clay tile project allows our toddler/adult and young 3s classes to work intimately with Old Trail School’s art teacher and clay tile artist, Bob Yost.  Children are creating clay tiles,  cutting them apart, watching them dry, glazing them and then waiting for them to be fired.  The completed tiles will be sorted and used daily in the children’s classrooms as manipulatives. 

Manipulatives allow children to learn about patterns, symmetry, balance, shape recognition, creative play, size relations, direction following, trial and error, measurement, volume, area, classification, color recognition, hand-eye coordination, symbolic representation and more. 

This exciting project was made possible thanks to a generous grant from the Kenneth L. Calhoun Charitable Trust.