If you want to engage your pre school kid in a creative activity, clay craft is the good choice. Clay or play dough, being the kids favourite play thing allows them to make different shapes using molds and hands. Looking for Clay Craft Ideas for Kids?
Clay craft is the best activity to explore your kid’s imagination and enhance their motor skills by improving hand and eye coordination. Kids can build their own favourite play things.
This article discusses the benefits of clay crafts. It presents 16 best creative clay craft ideas for children.
What is Craft Clay?
Craft clay is a modeling substance used by the kids for arts and crafts projects. It is made from the natural wax and includes attractive colors. It is commonly ruled as play dough. You can also make the play dough on your own at home with flour, water, and salt.
How to Make Play Dough?
Fun and creative play dough is easy to make at the home. Here is the list of ingredients that you need
Ingredients:
2 Cups flour
2 Cups warm water
1 cup salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon of tartar to improve the elasticity (Optional)
Food coloring
Step1: Preparation
1. Mix all the ingredients together in a mixing bowl
2. Stir the ingredients on a low heat till it resemble mashed potatoes and it is no longer sticky.
3. Remove the dough from the heat once all the clumps in the middle and allow it to cool enough to handle.
4. If your dough remains sticky allow it to cook for some more time.
Step 2 : Coloring the dough
1. Divide the dough into small balls.
2. Make a pit at the centre of the ball and drop the food color into it.
3. Allow the food color to spread evenly across the ball by rolling the dough ball over and over for many times.
4. Add different colors to the balls
Step 3: How to Store
1. Once it is done store it in a air tight container.
2. If your dough begins to dry and harder. Knead it with a bit of water to soften it back and make it suitable for molding.
The play dough prepared this way is edible, salty and kid’s friendly and safe.
Benefits of Playing with Play Dough:
Play dough is found in every preschool classroom and home. Play dough yields many benefits to the kids:
Here are the few benefits of playing with craft clay:
1) Fine Motor Skills:
It helps in developing the motor skills of your kid. As kids use finger muscles to make different shapes, it helps them to gain control over their finger muscles before they start writing at the school.
Your kid can learn to write the alphabets easily if he is engaged in the creative activities before going to the school.
2) Social Skills:
When your child is allowed to play with other siblings, they engage in some talks and discussions in making the craft. It helps them to build and enhance creative skills.
3) Creativity and Imagination:
Play dough puts a number of molding options in front of your kid. It allows your kid to make ou animals, foods, flowers, small toys etc. It will help in boosting the imaginative corner in your kid.
4) Vocabulary:
Children playing with play dough may come across the words like roll, squeeze, flatten etc. It will let them to introduce new words before going to the school.
5) Numeracy:
Play dough crafts offer your kid great opportunity to learn about maths by introducing the concepts of measurement and counting. You can include beads or buttons in the crafting to enhance counting abilities in your kid.
6) Concentration:
It is well known fact that kids can not concentrate on the same thing for longer time. The play dough activity allows your kid to sit for longer periods and thereby enhances their concentration span.
7) Therapeutic value:
The play dough activity helps in soothing the anxious child. It is a relaxing creative activity and reduces stress. It offers them a best noise free play time.
Best Clay Craft Ideas for Kids:
Here are a few craft ideas for kids using clay:
1. Clay Earthworm:
- Ask your kid to make small sphere shape balls with the two shades.
- Once they are making 5-7 small balls ask them to attach the balls to form the earthworm.
- Allow your kid to make eyes and place two small sticks with dough tips as the antenna.
2. Clay Cone Ice Cream:
This is a simple craft idea for kindergarten kids.
Take a empty tissue roll and cut it open. Roll it from one corner to make a cone.
Color this cone and allow your kid to make scoops with play dough to place it on the top of the cone.
You can also top your scoop with small beads to make it appealing.
3. Rainbow Snake Pots:
- Ask your kid to make small sticks from the different colored clay balls.
- Allow them to join the both ends of the each stick to form a circle
- Arrange the circles one over the other resembling a pot
4. Earth Clay Craft:
This is the best craft idea to celebrate the Earth day with your kids. This helps to teach your preschool kid the value of the earth before he goes to school.
- Make out a blue ball without ant ridges or grooves.
- Stick the green pieces on it as continents and use smaller pieces for islands.
- Gently roll the ball over the ground to ensure that they are blended together.
- Make eyes from the small dough pieces.
5. Clay angry birds:
- Ask your kid to roll the red colored clay into oval shape
- Help them in making the tuffs of hair and eyebrows.
- Once everything is ready help your kid in assembling them together with eyes and nose.
6. Clay Snail:
- Ask your kid to make finger width sticks of different lengths with play dough.
- Slightly rise the front part of the shorter stick representing the snail’s head
- Roll the longer stick in several turns making the snail shell.
- Help your kid in attaching the snail shell to the body.
7. Clay Magnets:
This is very simple creative craft idea that your kids love.
1. Ask your kid to make a small pellet and it with a rolling pin.
2. You can use cookie cutter to cut the different shapes like heart, circle, star etc.
3. Allow the shape to dry and become hard.
4. Stick a magnet to the back of it and you can decorate your little one’s first crafty item on the fridge.
8. Play Dough Cup Cake:
1. Cut the plastic glass into half to make base for the cup cake
2. Make use of muffin molds and allow your kid to make cake to put into the cup.
3. Use small colored beads as the toppings for the cup cake.
9. Leaf Impression:
This craft is the best way to teach your kids the value of trees.
1. Allow your kid to collect the different sized leaves.
2. Make them to make the 2-3 rolls of the clay.
3. Ask them to flatten them using the rolling pin and help them in making the impression of the leaf on the clay.
4. Cut out the extra part out of the leaf impression.
5. Once everything is ready paint it and decorate in your kid’s room.
10. Clay Bowls:
This is one of the best play dough crafts for toddler.
Ask your kid to make a ball out of bright color dough.
Help them in making the hallow in the middle of the ball.
Let your kid to make small yellow colored balls and place them in the hallow part of the dough.
To make it more reslistic ask your kid to make the impressions with the pencil.
11. Star Ornaments:
Ask your kid to roll the dough ball and use the cookie cutter to cut it down to star shape.
Flatten the shape using the rolling pin.
Make sure to apply even pressure all over the shape.
Use a straw to make a hole at any point on the top of the star
Allow it to dry for 24-48 hours so that it can become hard.
Pass the ribbon or string through the hole and you can use it as a decorative item or a ornament.
12. Rainbow Necklace:
Allow your kid to make long colored strips of same width with the dough.
Bring the strips together and curl the ends.
Make a cloud by curling white color dough and stick it to the free side of rainbow.
Put a small hook at the middle of the rainbow and string it onto a piece of cord or chain.
13. Frozen Elsa Play Craft:
Make out your kid’s favorite cartoon.
- Make out the Elsa face with the tan clay and use small black clay pieces to form the eyes.
- Take a small piece of dough and shape a neck at the bottom of the face surrounding the tooth pick.
- Take two small blue pieces of clay
- Make top part of elsa’s dress with one part and skirt with another piece of dough.
- Roll out two thin pieces from blue clay to make elsa’s arms.
- Fix the arm ends with small pieces of tan clay and make use of yellow clay to make Elsa’s hair.
14. Paper Clip Flower:
Here is a simple flower craft with paper clips.
- Make a circular place for the flower.
- Make your kid to do flowers like tulip with playdough
- Allow your kid to join the base and flower with the paper pins.
15. Clay Car:
You can make a simple car craft with play dough.
- Help your kid in making car body.
- You can make use of Rotelle for car wheels and small beads for headlights.
16. Dough Easter Eggs:
Make out the oval shapes from the play dough and allow your kid to pain them in various patterns as per their preferences and sprinkle the glitters.
You can also put a small hole at the top of the Easter egg to hang them from the windows on Easter day.
These Clay craft ideas for Kids not only help your kids to explore the creativity they can also help them to enhance motor skills. They are best choice in order to make the learning more interesting. Clay craft ideas for the kids will help your preschool kid to gain knowledge of basic learning skills before going to school.
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