What are your fingers doing?

We have noticed an interest in tools within the studio.  The children have investigated:

  • Hammers to pound golf tees into a pumpkin

  • Phillips and flathead screwdrivers to tighten screws

  • Hexagonal screwdrivers to undo bolts

  • Triangle screwdrivers to connect Duplo pieces

BUT WHAT IF THEY USED THEIR HANDS AS TOOLS?  COULD THEIR HANDS BE A TOOL?

To this end we added clay to the sensory table and posed the question.

What are your fingers doing?

Listening carefully we heard a whole range of vocabulary around using their hands in clay.

  • crushing the clay

  • connecting the connector

  • being a hammer

  • making a hole

  • making a ball

  • ripping it up

  • pushing it

  • flattening it

  • poking it

  • twisting it

  • pulling it

  • rolling it

  • pinch it off then rub it

  • being a drill

  • banging it

Yes, the children discovered, hands could in fact be tools. The language we heard referenced their experiences with real tools. But what would happen if we altered this clay experience? Would the children’s interaction with the material be different if it were presented in a different format? Would their language change? If we provide the children with individual workspaces and new tools would their thinking shift?