Cross-age interaction and the Circus

As the Circus project began to unfold among the Meadow room children, coincidentally a group of Garden roomers were thinking about Circus too. When the teachers asked me if a group could come to the studio to work on making Circus animals, I had to think carefully. How could a group of three year olds represent animals, when they don't yet have drawing in their repertoire? I showed the children this book...(James Castle; A Retrospective) and they looked carefully at James Castle's cardboard and string constructions.  The Garden room makers of Tigers and Elephants were soon joined by some older children who made a duck, a squirrel, and a Circus 'Top Hat Man'. The children seemed to immediately understand Castle's way of working, and adapt it to their own use.