When schools in Missouri were ordered closed in March due to COVID-19 Laura Lenhert, an art teacher at Park Hill South High School and her students had no idea they would be out for the rest of the school year.
They had planned to have students watch videos and write about what they saw in the hope that they would be able to return to school and apply what they had learned to their artwork.
“We weren’t trying to create busy work but instead provide a time to start planning,” Lenhert said.
Park Hill South students completed soap carvings as part of their distance learning curriculum, providing a break from reading, writing and arithmetic.
She kept thinking of what she would want to be doing during the stay-at-home order and it was definitely to make art.
So she and her colleague, Callie Colvin worked together to come up with a plan to engage their students in the more hands-on creativity that they were used to.
“We decided we would make sculptures out of soap, food, paper, cardboard and found objects,” Lenhert said. “It’s very therapeutic to work with your hands. That is why so many people like to garden, cook and make art. It gives you a sense of pride. Food tastes better when you are eating out of a bowl you have made. It’s more about the process and not the product.”
Lenhert posted You Tube videos for the students to watch. Some students didn’t have the supplies they needed but she said the students were used to all types of carving tools at school so some had to improvise.“The soap can break easily or crumble so having a smoother type of soap works best and having the right tools help too,” Lenhert said.
The soap and food carvings turned out to be very successful and while speaking to her students through Zoom they have repeatedly expressed how much they love making art of any kind. They are disappointed they can’t work with clay right now but they appreciate that they can still be creative.
It wasn’t an easy transition to go from clay to soap. “Clay is a very forgiving material,” Lenhert said. “You can take away and add to it. With soap, once it is off you cannot reattach. There had to be some problem solving on their part. They had to work through it on their own.”
While most of the students created animals, one student sculpted a “Reaper Man.” “It looks good in the photo but when I saw it on Zoom I realized it was one piece of soap that was very impressive,” Lenhert said.
Lenhert teaches two ceramics classes and there are 75 students enrolled in the classes. Colvin teaches a ceramics class also.
“I am fortunate to work with three amazing art teachers,” Lenhert said. “We collaborate daily in school and it hasn’t changed at home. I love teaching ceramics. It’s very rewarding to watch students create something that they have pride in. They are so excited to make their first bowl on the pottery wheel. Very few have ever had the opportunity to be on the wheel so watching them do something new is exciting. They take a lot of pride in it.”
This is Lenhert’s 27th year teaching at the Park Hill School District and she has been teaching ceramics for 25 years. She graduated from Park Hill High School and Missouri Western State University.
Art has always had a special place in her heart and since she loved to use her hands pottery was a natural fit. She started a small business on the side 15 years ago. She creates handmade plates and platters for people and she draws their houses on them.
“I love doing this because it’s meaningful to them. It does not matter what the house looks like, it matters that it creates memories for people.”
Her advice for students under quarantine is to journal their experiences. “This is something new for everyone,” Lenhert said.
For Lenhert the most rewarding part of the soap sculpting project has been having students posting their sculptures on a media board where they can give comments to each other.
“This has been a win-win,” Lenhert said. “They get to see all of their peers work and they get positive affirmation. Who couldn’t use that at this time? It is very sweet.”
Lenhert’s website is potterybylaura.com.