This activity promotes development and learning by encouraging children to demonstrate the use of creativity and imagination in learning and play. The process of observing something, drawing it, and creating it in clay requires focus, planning, creativity, and fine motor dexterity.
Materials Needed:
- Clay
- Paper and pencils
Participants: This activity is intended for adult/child interaction.
Directions:
- Offer your child a ball of clay. Show them how to roll the clay into a ball, shape it into a long tube, or smash it flat.
- Encourage your child to think of a favorite animal. Find a picture of that animal on the internet to use as a reference or study a toy figurine if possible.
- Help your child draw the animal first on paper, observing the image or figurine carefully. Then try to recreate the animal with clay, molding small pieces, such as a sphere for the head, and cylinders for the legs, before putting the pieces together.
