A discussion about community service turned a little messy for the fifth period ceramics class at Youngsville High School on Tuesday.
Messy in a good way.
The ceramic students welcomed into their art room the preschoolers of the Warren-Forest EOC Head Start classes at YHS for a lesson in pottery-making.
According to ceramics and art teacher Rebecca Yeager, the students discussed the possibility of doing some sort of community service. The discussion soon turned to sharing the craft of ceramics with the Head Start students.
"(The ceramic students) were really excited about what they're doing and they wanted to share," Yeager said. "It really establishes a community."
Both Head Start class at YHS will make two trips to the ceramics class this month. The first class started its pottery journey on Tuesday.
In the art room, ceramic students provided each preschooler with a chunk of clay. They showed the little kids how to roll the clay in a snake-type design before rolling it into a coil. The preschoolers also showed off their knowledge of shapes, creating squares, triangles and circles with the clay.
The lesson culminated with the creation of pinch pots. The method involves a ball of clay and pinching from the center outward to form the walls of the pot.
Ceramic student Alexis Robinault showed preschooler Arreanna how to use a little bit of water to soften and smooth the clay.
Yeager explained to the students the origin of clay with a song.
"Rock, leaves, water, hugged in the earth for a thousand years and you have clay," she sang.
After the little pots were created, the artists' names were inscribed on the bottom of the pots and set aside to be fired in a kiln at later time. The preschoolers will return to the ceramics class in two week to paint their pots.
"This really brought out a lot of caring, even in the high school setting," Yeager said.