Stink Balls

with Mrs. Vaage's kindergarten

You are probably wondering, as did I, what are stink balls? The kindergarten children had been exploring oil pastels and cardstock for a couple of days, when I began to hear discussion about "stink balls." Shortly after I observed their play/work, I decided to document this discovery and learning process.

Carly is demonstrating how to make a stink ball. First you color with oil pastels. Then you start to rub the colors with a pencil crayon.

When you've pressed hard with the pencil crayon, you collect some of the pastel on the tip of the pencil.

Using your fingers, pull the pastel off the pencil tip.

Roll the pastel material into a little ball, and you have the start of a stink ball.

Christopher M. has just started working on a new stink ball today.

It gets bigger and bigger with more work.

Max has two colors rolled into his stink ball which he started yesterday.

Banon worked hard to keep his stink ball perfectly round.

The biggest stink ball was Christopher T's. He worked on it for 3 days.

The stink ball project started from the children's creativity with materials provided on the tables.

Banon has discovered that you can use your fingernails to pull off the pastel.

This play/work with stink balls continued over a two week period. The children took these stink balls back and forth from school to home, and parents began to talk to me about the color and textures causing stains in the carpets at home, so it was time to move the children beyond this stage. We closed off the stink balls after a discussion with the children and they agreed that they could and would be willing to work in other media that offered creativity. We followed through using clay. The children also discovered under the playground structures that if they dug deep enough through the sand they found a natural ground clay that was almost identical to the stink ball texture.

This could have easily been dismissed as unproductive activity, too messy, not focused, or wasteful. However, when documented like this, the learning that occurred was phenomenal. The children learned that I valued their creativity and exploration as valuable and this set the tone of the year for many other projects; that process is important, perhaps far more important than product. None of their oil pastel rubbings were mounted and displayed by children's choice. They readily through them in the recycle/garbage at clean-up time.

The children learned to explain the process to others, using functional oral language.

They made social connections with other children. This was very early in September, and this group of 6 children continued to work together throughout the year based on this early bonding experience.

Physically, they gained skill in both gross and fine motor skills.

The children also began to understand that some projects are not finished with one "go" at it; that sometimes you can work and work at a project perfecting, and adding to your previous work. Again, I was confirmed for my belief in giving children time, time to explore, time to revisit materials, and time to satiate curiosity.

Intellectually, they began the problem solving process, looking at a material and trying to discover the different things that can be done with it. They moved from one concept to extending it to another, integrating and assimilating their information.

Emotionally, they learned that they were capable learners, that their ideas had worth and value, and that their explorations had merit, which all led to self-efficacy and self-confidence.

Carol Vaage