k-play

Can I Clay With You?®

*If your school, center or conference would like a workshop call 888-266-3094 or e-mail info@k-play.com

*Our In-service Workshops help you provide developmentally appropriate, process oriented, art experiences to your students. Workshops can be geared toward pre-school, elementary or middle school teachers.

*For a full day experience or for in-depth workshops, you can tailor your workshop by combining workshops.

We Work With Children!

All of our workshops can be held right in your classroom! It is a great way of introducing a new material or motivating the art area.

We Offer Consulting Services!

All consultations receive a written follow up report outlining key suggestions and techniques. Consultations can be linked to an in-service workshop or class demonstration. Consulting services include:

•Individual Consulting

•Classroom Observation

•Curriculum Creation & Support

•Classroom Design

•Materials Assessment

•Educational Hand-outs

We Teach Parent Educational Nights!

Provide your parents with an educational experience that is both fun and informative! Parent Nights can be held with or without children.

Read What People Are Saying About Our Workshops!

“The clay workshop was great! I would love to introduce clay to my co-workers and incorporate it into my own programs - toddlers to kindergarten!” – Teacher, Houston, TX

"Kathleen was well prepared and I learned a lot about clay I didn't know!"

-Playgroup Leader, Great Barrington, MA

"This was a great hands-on experience. Kathleen was clear and helpful. Both theory & practice were addressed and included."

-Pre-school Teacher, Pittsfield, MA

"I liked how the clay workshop was visual, auditory, and sensory!"

-Nursery School Teacher, Southport, CT

"Thank you for providing the excellent breakout session entitled Experiencing Clay: A Hands-on Workshop at the Eighth Annual Together We Will conference. Your presentation was extremely well received and provided special educators with invaluable information about the value of working with clay."

-Megan Formica, SERC, Middletown. CT

"I loved trading ideas and experimenting with paint in an actual hands-on experience!"

-Family Day Care Provider, Great Barrington, MA

"Kathleen Bailer has a great deal of knowledge and excellent teaching skills. Lucky to have her at Berkshire Community College. Very inspiring!"

-Special Ed Pre-school Teacher, Pittsfield, MA

"This was the most fun I have ever had in a workshop!"

-Pre-school Teacher, CAEYC Conference

“Excellent Workshop! Hands-on and fun! Probably the best workshop I have attended so far! Wonderful ideas! Thank you! – Kindergarten Teacher, Pittsfield, MA“The course was excellent. There was a wonderful balance between art theory and background, with teaching methods and hands-on experiences.” – K-6 Art Teacher, Amagansett, NY

“Kathleen Bailer is a wonderful presenter, well researched and well organized.”- Pre-school Teacher, Houston, TX

Find out more about workshop presenter Kathleen Bailer.

Check Our References

Find out workshop fees and expenses

Don’t see exactly what you want? Workshops can be tailored to meet your needs! Discuss your ideas with Kathleen Bailer at 888-266-3094 or info@k-play.com.

I Am Clay
An engaging visual presentation on using natural clay as an open-ended art medium with young children. The presentation will feature the I Am Clay documentary film and address ways in which clay can enhance children’s physical, emotional, interpersonal, creative and intellectual development. Included in the presentation is information on clay’s use in the curriculum as a literacy and math tool and its therapeutic benefit to children with special needs. The presentation is highly motivational and applicable towards other art mediums and learning centers in the classroom.

Methods
Clay is a fundamental expressive material for all young children. It is responsive, fluid and easy to manipulate. Working with clay encourages children to explore, communicate, imagine and problem solve on a three-dimensional level. This workshop will help you become familiar with clay, use clay as an open-ended material in the classroom, talk with children about their artwork and support children’s creative developmental growth. It is a perfect combination of theory and hands-on practice!

Projects
Children love clay. It is a fun, responsive material that can be re-used, air-dried or fired in a kiln. This hands-on workshop will introduce to you a multitude of open-ended, developmentally appropriate projects for the classroom, art room, special needs program or after-school center. You will take home project ideas and teaching techniques as well as your own clay sculptures!

Hands-On
Would you like more time exploring clay, making projects or learning advanced clay methods and techniques? This workshop is a follow up to the early childhood or school age workshop. It is geared to your individual group needs and will bring more depth to the clay work in your classroom or program. It can be added to the early childhood or school age workshops for a full-day clay experience, be used as a follow up workshop at a later date or be combined with the audio-visual clay workshop for a deep enriching experience for all.

Literacy
Explore the use of clay as an open-ended, tactile, three-dimensional literacy medium. This hands-on workshop will help you become familiar with clay, show you the importance of using clay for early symbol recognition, teach you techniques of improving children’s spelling, and take you through a sample lesson on using clay as a response to reading. You will also learn how to manage the use of natural clay effectively in your classroom to eliminate any mess and to promote independent use. This workshop can be combined with any other clay workshop!

Can I Scribble With You?

Hands-on and Theory
Gain valuable insight into children’s scribbling and early drawing. Learn how scribbling is the building block for writing while discovering the scribbling alphabet! During this workshop, you will explore the developmental stages of scribbling through slides and actual examples of children’s work, learn how to incorporate drawing into your literacy curriculum and explore a variety of children’s drawing tools and surfaces.

Early Literacy
A workshop packed full of information and concepts about early literacy. The first part of the workshop focuses on developing early reading skills such as phonemic awareness in young children through rhyme, alliteration, oddity tasks, oral blending, oral segmentation and phonemic manipulation. The second part concentrates on developing early writing skills such as scribbling, drawing and storytelling. A perfect workshop for all early childhood teachers as well as parents with young children.

Can I Construct With You?

Trash
Creating art from found materials develops the power of observation and enhances the capacity to see multiple possibilities. Learning and constructing with found materials develops children’s abilities to sort, arrange, count, design, create and cooperate with their peers while using everyday materials. It connects children with the environment and their culture. This workshop will help you enhance your own teaching, power of observation and creativity.

Wood
Develop your understanding of wood and how you can use this free, natural material with young children! Using natural materials helps connect children to the outdoors and develops their awareness of wood in our lives. During this workshop, you will learn how to make wood sculptures out of lumber cut-offs and beautiful reliefs and weavings from all natural found materials!

Can I Build With You?

Unit Blocks
Blocks, Blocks, Blocks. Understand the value of using unit blocks in your classroom. Promote literacy-building activities in the block area. Learn block management. Understand the developmental stages of block building. Watch block-building classrooms at work! A thought provoking information filled workshop. Can be combined with the hands-on workshop for a full block building experience!

Hands-On
Experience block building by making towers and/or enclosures! Watch children at work! A fun workshop that blends theory with hands-on experience. We can work in your classroom with your unit blocks or create our own hand-made blocks to build with.

Can I Paint With You?

Methods
Paint with watercolor, mix colors with tempera paint, play a painting game and explore alternative painting tools! This hands-on workshop will teach you how to manage

Can I Collage With You?

Methods
Collage is for everyone! Learn how to present open-ended collage activities as you cut, tear, design and paste projects of your own. This workshop will expand your knowledge of collage, teach you how to organize and manage materials effectively and give you a whole year's worth of sequential collage activities!

Can I Print With You?

Methods
Explore different techniques of printmaking! Learn how to create mono-prints, cardboard reliefs, solar prints and found object prints as well as create your own printmaking materials from everyday objects! Printmaking teaches texture, pattern, and design. You will learn how to facilitate the young child's natural exploratory process in this fun hands-on workshop!

Thinking With A Line
Thinking With A Line, developed by art educator Cathy Topal, is a unique program that opens a world of learning to young children by teaching them how to use the edge of a small rectangle of cardboard dipped into paint as a tool for making lines. By combining and connecting lines, children discover that they can create a wealth of complex structures, including shapes, letters, alphabets, patterns and symmetrical and radial designs! This workshop will introduce you to the process of printing with a line and cover the possibilities of its use throughout the curriculum.

Children’s Workshops
Often teachers come away from workshops with inspiration and ideas but don’t know where to begin. Our children’s workshops allow teachers to see first-hand how to implement open-ended art experiences as well as give the children a special experience of working with an expert. Each demonstration entails a 30 to 45 minute lesson using clay, collage, printmaking, found materials, blocks or paint. Designed to stimulate excitement and increase knowledge, the children’s workshops come highly recommended!

Parent/Child Nights
Invite parents and children in your center or school to a night filled with discovery, creativity, togetherness and fun! Our parent/child nights are very popular and can be tailored to a process oriented experience for families (such as making clay bridges) or a make and take night where a piece of durable and beautiful art is created. Parent/Child nights are a chance for parents to experience part of their child’s curriculum first-hand!

Art for Early Childhood Teachers – Earn 15 PDP’s!This course aims to give teachers an understanding of art materials suitable for young children through the exploration of drawing, painting, collage, printmaking and clay. Building an art curriculum and ways in which a teacher supports growth will be central to the course. Art for Early Childhood Teachers is an officially registered course with the Massachusetts Department of Education. Upon successful completion you will earn 15 PDP’S. Download a full course syllabus.