In a similar way, it is possible to carve in hard clay, although this makes clay enthusiasts raise their eyebrows.

For plaster, clay, soap and salt carving, knives are the best tools. Old fdes, too are useful for all but soap.

In the third group of modelling materials are wood, card, paper, fabric, and the whole range of materials that are most aptly classified as "junk". In doing this kind of work with Primary school children, I think the teacher should be careful to see that the children in her care are making things which they personally can envisiage. This happens naturally while children are making things of their own choice, but, in more directed work, it is not unusual to find children making, for example, a building from a piece of flat card, following the teacher's instructions step by step, with very little idea of what the end product will be, or how it is achieved. Towards the top of the Primary school, children are beginning to discover for themselves that it is possible to construct something three diamen-sional from something flat. At this point they are ready to benefit from this kind of work, but with Infants and young Juniors, it is much more satisfactory to provide three-dimensional material for three-dimensional work, making buildings from boxes and pieces of wood, for example. In any case, at whatever stage this kind of work is introduced there should be opportunity for children to make things of their own choice before any directed work is attempted.

In doing this work the teacher should be clear in her mind about the purposes of the work. Two purposes which I feel are important are these. We want to help children to meet and solve some of the constructional problems which the material provides. We want, as in collage work, to help them to discover good relationships of material. The constructional problems are many—how do I put the wheels on this cart?—how do I stick the chimney on my house?—and so on. If the work is too much directed, the children will not have to solve these problems at all. If they are to discover good relationships of material, there must be plenty of discussion about what looks well with what. There must also be a wide choice of materials, well displayed. The sorts of material suitable include, in addition to boxes and cartons of all kinds, cotton-reels, feathers, pieces of wood and wire, string, sewing materials, scraps of fabric, pipe cleaners, clothes-pegs, all kinds of corrugated card and paper. The various kinds of pasta can also be useful. Macaroni, for example, can be broken fairly easily, yet not too easily, and it will take paint. In fact, there is no end to the possibilities for ingenuity and invention on the part of teacher and children.

All the modelling materials I have mentioned, though probably not the carving materials, can be used in conjunction with each other. Thus a car or lorry may be made from wood or card, and the passengers of clay or plasticine, dressed in scraps of material. Each material has certain qualities of its own, which should be explored, but the relation of one to another needs exploration, too.

I have already suggested a number of paths of exploration for work with clay. Nearly all of these can also be tried with plasticine. Work with dough is limited by its nature, but some relief modelling can be tried and it can also be used as part of a project using other materials. Both methods of papier mache modelling should be tried, and their possibilities explored. More is possible with this medium than is at first apparent.

In carving, I would suggest the following, which can be carried out in any of the media suggested:

1. Work in relief and work in the round. Children will obviously find one or other way of working for themselves. They may possibly not discover both.

2. Carving of the standing human figure. One of the problems of carving this is that the body is necessarily rather solid, and the legs must be sufficiently strong to hold up the body. In general it is a good plan to carve both legs in one piece.

3. Carving of animals, following discussion and, in the case of top Juniors, observation.

4. Carving of the human head. This is a suitable occupation for top Juniors only and should be preceeded by discussion about the shape of the head and the position of the features.

The "hard" modelling materials will need the kind of exploration, which as I have already suggested, brings children up against certain problems, helps them to relate materials to each other, and helps them to develop certain skills. The possibilities are endless, but I would suggest that the following at least should be explored:

1. Work in which the relationship of materials to each other is stressed and which, by its nature, demands a variety of materials. Example—A group of children decide to make a village. Suitable buildings to include are decided upon and the division of labour is planned. Materials are then discussed and conclusions reached about what looks well with what, and how different textures of walls, roads, grass are to be represented. Thus it might be decided that a house with card walls would look well with the contrasing texture of corrugated card on the roof, the further contrast of grass made from painted towelling in the garden, and sandpaper for the path.

2. Work which demands the solution of particular problems. Example—A group of children work at making a garage, each child contributing a vehicle of his own choice. Thus everyone is confronted with the problem of attaching wheels, and a number of different solutions may be reached within the group. This sort of problem is partly a mathematical one and must be matched carefully to the intelligence and stage of development of the children.

3. Work which requires either measurement or judgement of space. Example—In either of the projects previously suggested, the parts of the whole—the houses in one case, the vehicles in the other—must be related in size to the others. This could be discussed before the work is started, and very approximate sizes agreed upon. For younger children these sizes should be stated in terms of something concrete—about as long as your reading book, as wide as your desk, as tall as one window pane—and the children should be shown if necessary how to measure one thing against another. With older children one can give approximate measurements—about six inches high, for instance. This sort of work offers excellent opportunities for judging measurement, and we should take full advantage of them. There will be plenty of opportunities for accurate measurement at other times. Ability to judge measurements is, for the majority of us, more useful.

10-year-olds. Mickey Mouse and a Red Indian (Chapter 10)

10-year-olds. Puppet characters for children's own play (Chapter 10).

4. Large-scale work. Work with this sort of material has a tendency to be work in miniature. If space allows and if materials are available, it is a good idea to do some work on a life-size scale. A group of children, for example, could make a vehicle large enough for them to sit inside.

5. Group work. All the examples I have so far quoted have been examples of group work, and there is no doubt that this medium particularly lends itself to group activities. There should, of course, be opportunities for both group and individual work. The social gains from group work are well known, and from the art and craft point of view there is no doubt that children learn from each other. We must, however, be careful to see that each child has the opportunity to develop a personal way of working as well as the ability to work in a group.

Many of the purposes of this kind of work are quite satisfactorily fulfilled in making models connected with work in history or geography, and here work in various subjects overlaps happily as it should. The only danger is that of allowing the aims from the craft point of view to become subservient to the requirements of the history or geography lesson on too many occasions.