Children have the opportunity to be creative while conducting numerous manipulative operations using pottery clay. Play dough is fun to both children and youngsters, but playing with the clay has so many benefits that it enhances the development of the basic motor skills as well as the spatial and problem solving skills. As much as children enjoy playing with pottery clay, they should be guided by adults such that it becomes an innovative and enjoyable learning activity for children of all ages. Below are some good ideas on pottery clay projects to undertake with kids as they are exciting and also elicit learning among children.
Tips on How to Begin with Pottery Clay
In the case of working with clay for making pottery then select clay that is dried by air and is non-toxic, especially if children are involved. Search for clay that dries naturally and forms a hard and durable material that can then be coloured and varnished and used for display. Before starting any project, create a safety zone on the work table where minor spills and accidents are inevitable, place a plastic sheet on the working table for cleaning convenience. Make sure the children wear play clothes to the activity or give them smocks to wear over their regular clothes. Show how to prepare and work on the clay, for example by showing how to soften the clay through kneading it before one starts shaping it.
Simple Clay Creations
Clay is versatile and can be used in a number of ways, so when introducing the use of it, the tasks should initially be basic and the students should be allowed to create their sculptures in any form that they want. Hand over clay modeling tools simple enough such as wooden skewers and blunt butter knives that can be used to imprint designs but allow the kids to shape the clay into different forms by hand. They can pinch and pull the clay into various forms of natural such as animals, beasts or human creativity in the creation of pieces such as artistic renditions. Let the creations dry to the environment until completely dry, and then paint with acrylic paint on the creations using bold colors. Include features such as, painted appendages with the googly eyes or the pipe cleaners as the painted projects dry.
Functional Ceramics
Young children can create useful items of pottery for use at home if they are given more instructions and direction from the elders. Hand built mugs or vases are excellent projects to come up with due to the fact that kids can make them and give as gifts for parents or grandparents. Make vases by using rolled coils of the clay or to make mug forms, use clay and roll it into cylinders. Use the fingers to smoothen and blend the clay coils or seams to finish. Ensure that pieces are robust, with walls made from thick clay and a base that is broad and leveled for support so the pieces do not topple over when filled with liquid. Use glazes or acrylic paints for decoration after the projects have dried in the open or has air dried.
Homemade Play Dough Fun
When looking for a much simpler, non-Related clay material, children can assist in preparing batches of homemade playdough. They will like observing the colors and the formation when combined and the consistency when hot water is added. Another idea is to modify the play dough and add some smell that children will find appealing such as lemon or peppermint essence. Next, make it more creative or thrilling while creating play dough like bright snakes, strange pizzas or silly monster faces.
Nature Printing
Printing with natural objects also means that kids can get very detailed patterns in clay to guide the fine motor skills of their hands, which may not be fully developed with young kids. Gather textured leaves, flowers, seashells, feathers, or sticks when on a nature trail and then forcefully apply these items on soft clay slabs in a way that they leave an imprint of the texture behind. Gently lift the nature objects away and observe lovely patterns similar to leaf veins or feather marks imprinted on the clay.
Texture Rubbing Plaques
Here’s another fun clay activity that will teach children how to replicate details in objects they see in daily life. Spread out a thick flat piece of clay as a base and then take the children to roadsides, walls and other rough surfaces such as the bark of trees, sidewalk, or grassy field and use crayon rubbing sheets on it. Place these crayon rubbings closely onto the clay and rub them in to impress their surface pattern onto the clay. The application of the textures is done by rolling a roller tool on the surface of the clay before drying or painting or glazing.
Clay Jewelry
Older children can also make items that they can wear from clay through making beads or pendants at home. Can let the clay bits sit until they dry up or bake the beads and pendants in the oven at low temperature until they turn stiff. Next, assemble the clay pieces into one-of-a-kind jewelry by stringing them with cord or wire to create necklaces and bracelets. Children are proud to show friends handmade clay Ornaments. Optional, after the jewelry is done, use the sealant spray which helps to make the jewelry hard and have a shiny appearance.
Stuffed Animal Clay Feet
Rubber stamping footprints for those stuffed animals you may have taken pictures with is a sweet memory craft that parents and children will definitely enjoy. Place soft clay pads at the feet of the plush toys and gently press them. Take out all the stuffed animals and wait for the etched footprints to dry up until they become as hard as they can be. Once the tiles are dried up and done, use puffy paint to add designs, use markers or glitter glue or paints faux gems on the clay tiles. Insert a loop on top to suspend these cute clay paw shaped trinkets on the wall or put them on a dresser or a bookshelf so that people will be reminded of dear fuzzy companions.
Clay Tabletop Gardens
It is also possible to engage kids in gardening projects where they use clay soil in planting instead of fighting it. Use your fingers to make little indentations and cavities on small pieces of wedged and molded moist clay arranged on saucers or broad dishes to form small garden scenes. Create with clay plant labels, cute little walkways or, little animals around the holes before putting dirt in the ‘dings’ and placing small little plants, flowers or even vegetable sprouts such as green onions. Fertilize these living clay gardens by taking water from dishes, whenever soil feels dry for plants.
During entertaining clay attempts, it is vital to allow kids the opportunity to build from their creative minds while at the same time giving some direction on how the structures must be created. Clay time, accompanied by supervision, by waiting through the mistakes, by asking questions, and by encouraging the unique ideas is useful to expand kids’ minds while hands are occupied with mud. Everyone at home will have a good chuckle while exhibiting some of the cute and quirky pottery works that kids create.