Making crafts with clay is a fun and interesting way to encourage your kid’s imagination and creativity. Children tend to love the bright colors and the soft texture of modeling clay or play-dough. Playing with clay will also enhance the motor skills of children. This is because they use their hands to mold different shapes. With a little guidance from an elder, kids can make creative and easy crafts out of modeling clay. In this article, we will discuss creative and easy clay crafts for kids.
11 Creative And Easy Clay Crafts For Kids
Clay caterpillar
This is one of the various creative clay activities for pre-schoolers. Children will enjoy making a caterpillar with clay.
Process
Cut out a leaf shape from white paper. Ask your child to color the leaf with crayons. Cut out the leaf shape and keep it aside. Next, take green and brown play-dough. Show your child the way to make tiny round balls of green and brown clay. Ask them to stick these balls together following an alternate color pattern. Use black clay to make eyes on the first ball to give the caterpillar a face. Use a black thread or black clay to form a smiley-mouth shape below the eyes. To make antennae, put two small sticks on the top of the caterpillar with a touch clay round covering the tip of every stick. Place the clay caterpillar on the paper leaf you made earlier to make it seem like it is crawling on the leaf.
Clay cone ice-creams
This is an exquisite clay modeling idea for kindergarteners. They can make cone ice-creams with clay.
Process
Collect some used cardboard toilet rolls. Cut them open and roll them from one corner to form a cone. Staple or glue the open side to ensure that the cone stays in shape. Now take different colors of playdough and make shapes on top of the cone to look like scoops of different-flavored ice-creams. Put small dots of various colors on top to denote sprinkles. Once the cone ice-creams are ready, the youngsters can alternate playing the ice-cream seller and buyers.
Cookie-cutter shapes
This is a really entertaining clay modeling idea for your darlings. You can buy the sort of clay or play dough that hardens after 24 hours of air-drying if the children want to preserve the clay cookies that they create.
Process
Give your child plastic cookie cutters of various shapes, such as animals, hearts, stars, crescents, etc. Use a kitchen utensil to flatten the play dough. You and your kid can cut out shapes from it with the cookie cutter. You could air-dry the shapes and preserve them so that your child can play with them later.
Seashell and pasta impressions
If your kid loves food and the beach, then this is for them. They will be delighted to ascertain the various impressions which will be made on clay using seashells and pasta shapes.
Process
Ask your child to use a kitchen utensil to flatten the clay. Next, give her a bunch of seashells and pasta shapes. Ask her to press them into the flattened play dough and then remove them. Now, let the kid examine the form that she has created using the seashell or pasta shapes. You can also use plastic animals or doll shoes to create tiny footprints.
Fruit basket
This is one of the many imaginative clay activities for 5-year-olds. With some help from you, they can create a basket of tiny clay fruits that looks very realistic and colorful.
Process
Ask your child to create a touch basket out of brown play-dough. Then you should proceed to use red, purple, yellow, and green play dough and help your kid in making tiny fruits like apple, a bunch of grapes, a banana, a pineapple, and a melon. You may need to assist your child so that she gets the shapes of the fruit right.
Mosaic art
This is an innovative art project for youngsters who are in kindergarten or older. The use of bits of old, dried play dough will teach your kids about recycling and its importance.
Process
Collect different colored bits of old, dried playdough for this one. Use an a4 size white paper of cardboard and ask your child to draw a garden scene with grass, trees, flowers, and the sun. Next, use a brush to color glue inside the outlines. Frame this and display it on a wall.
Celestial puppets
This is a fun activity for children. Using ice-cream sticks to make clay puppets of the sun, a star or a rainbow can keep your child engaged for hours.
Process
You will need a few craft sticks or ice-cream sticks, play dough of different colors, and craft eyes. To make a sun, roll an outsized yellow ball of clay and press a craft stick into it. Flatten another piece of yellow clay and cut long triangles to form the rays of the sun. Attach these to the yellow ball to make it seem like the sun. Next, press the rounded end of the craft stick into the yellow ball to make an impression of a smiling mouth. Stick craft eyes above the mouth to offer the puppet a face. To make a star puppet, flatten a blob of blue clay and cut out two identical star shapes employing a star-shaped kitchen utensil. Sandwich the ice-cream stick between the two stars and make a face on the star by adding eyes and a mouth. Make a rainbow puppet by rolling snake-shapes of the seven colors of the rainbow; arrange them to form a bow shape. Press the craft stick with the underside of the rainbow. Add eyes and a mouth.
Leaf impressions
You can use clay that hardens after air-drying or the sort of clay that will be hardened by baking to make leaves.
Process
First, ask your child to go collect big leaves of different shapes from a garden. Help your child clean the leaves. Flatten 2-3 rolls of clay. Now, let her make imprints of every leaf on different pieces of clay. Cut off the extra clay from the sides of the leaf shape and let the clay air dry. Once the leaf shapes are dry, ask your child to paint the clay with acrylic paint. Let the paint dry, now it is ready.
Clay snail
Making colorful animal shapes from clay is fun for children. Apart from a snail, you’ll also help your child make other animal shapes for instance a butterfly, an elephant, a turkey, a mouse, or a turtle.
Process
To make a snail, use a sea-shell or conch-shaped pasta as the shell and let your child paint it colorfully. To make the snail’s body, roll out snake-shaped clay and fasten the pasta-shape or sea-shell to the center of the body.
Fridge magnets
You can use air-drying clay and a self-stick magnet for this one to make colorful fridge magnets.
Process
Ask your child to mix different-colored blobs of clay. Flatten this with a rolling pin and use cookie cutters to cut out different shapes like a heart, a fish, a star, or a crescent. Let it air-dry and harden. Next, stick a magnet to the rear of the form and use the fridge magnet to embellish your refrigerator.
Halloween clay crafts
Halloween need not always be scary and dark; these cute pins can be shaped easily with cookie cutters and can be made in bright colors with clay children’s crafts.
Process
Knead the clay well with your hands until it is soft. Now use the rolling pin and roll them out about 1/4” inch in thickness. With a cookie cutter, cut out the shapes. Arrange them on a baking sheet and bake them according to the given instructions on the package. Once done, glue the eyes and draw faces on them.
