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Writer's pictureKeith

Weekly Activities - Wild Things Mud Faces



Book of the week

Where the Wild Things Are By Maurice Sendak.


Synopsis

Commonly accepted as one of the most important and influential picture books ever published, Sendak’s masterpiece is the supremely told and illustrated tale of angry, petulant Max and his enchanted journey to the Wild Things’ kingdom.

One night Max puts on his wolf suit and makes mischief of one kind and another, so his mother calls him 'Wild Thing' and sends him to bed without his supper.

That night a forest begins to grow in Max's room and an ocean rushes by with a boat to take Max to the place where the wild things are.

Max tames the wild things and crowns himself as their king, and then the wild rumpus begins!

But when Max has sent the monsters to bed, and everything is quiet, he starts to feel lonely and realises it is time to sail home to the place where someone loves him best of all.


Weekly Activities

To make our wild things faces, we started off by mixing soil and water in a bucket to make glorious mud. The children either made their own paintbrushes out of sticks and leaves or used their hands to press the mud onto a tree in order to make a mud face. They pressed leaves, sticks and stones into the mud for the facial features. Some of the children were initially reluctant to get their hands so dirty but once they felt the texture of the oozing mud and realised how much fun it was, we couldn't stop them! Some children used rollers to paint trees (and other things) and we soon had mud everywhere which was just about as much fun as you can possibly have.


On the days we weren't making mud, we used clay to make our wild things faces. We talked about the difference in textures between mud and clay and what we easier to sculpt into shape. The children used their hands or a rolling pin to flatten the clay and used various natural resources to press into the clay for the facial features. We let the clay air dry so the children could take their creations home.


Aims and Objectives

  • Make mud or clay faces to become ‘wild things’

  • To display child’s own interpretation and creativity of what a wild thing could look like

  • Explore different textures and surfaces


Home Activity

If you'd like to try creating your own 'wild things' mud faces, here's an in-depth guide from the Muddy Faces website to give you some pointers:






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