Clay Play can be a wonderful craft activity for toddlers. Clay activities help develop important fine motor movements children need. In this blog post, I will share my expertise on how to introduce clay, suitable clay materials, and how to start beginner clay activities. Crafts for toddlers can start with simple clay play activities.
Why is Clay Play Beneficial?
Playing with clay helps build strong neural connections essential for brain development. Working with their hands at an early age improves a toddler’s memory by developing implicit memory.
Clay play also strengthens the muscles in their fingers, hands, and arms through fine motor movements. This helps toddlers with everyday tasks like feeding themselves, dressing, or handling small objects while playing or building.
Introducing clay play is a wonderful way to exercise your toddler’s muscles and prepare them for practical life skills.
Best types of clay
There are four types of clays that I recommend for toddlers:
These types of clays are easy for toddlers to manipulate. They are malleable and suitable for changing, squeezing, and transforming into playful forms.
Pottery Earth Clay – is fun and messy, I recommended for outdoor use. It turns hard after air drying overnight.
Plasticine clay – can be used indoors and is made from wax and pigments that dose not harden. This craft clay is suitable for multiple uses and will not dry out.
Air Dry Clay – will harden overnight, and you can paint it after it dries out. You can find air dry from various brands such as Crayola Model Magic.
Homemade Play Dough – You can make this by mixing flour, water, salt and food coloring. This craft clay can be baked to harden. You can find many How to Make Play Dough – Easy No Cook Recipe videos online or on youtube.
Beginner Activities for First Time Clay Play
Start by introducing toddlers to clay activities with minimal set-ups. Begin with just clay, then gradually add clay tools, cookie cutters and rolling pins. Introduce how to press and poke fun objects into the clay. My best tip is to start small and simple. The first time – only provide clay, then add one tool. As a follow-up activity introduce how to press embellishments into the clay. So start with clay play first, then gradually add more tools and hand movement complexity.
Advantages of Tactile Clay Learning
It’s crucial for toddlers to have ample tactile experiences early. Tactile learning allows toddlers to feel with their hands, sending unique neural information to their brain. You can gain further insights into this topic by reading my book, The Way Children Make Art (Order Here). I share how children sensorily process tactile movements cognitively through art activities.
If you’re excited to start teaching clay play, my Clay Play book includes fun ideas to do with clay and set up. You can also find various clay modeling kits suitable for toddlers ororder my sequential clay modeling curriculum at my website.
Remember to take baby steps and start small so that you can manage the mess when introducing your toddlers to clay play. Gradually, they will learn to love clay play!
Order Clay Play Book Here
ORDER CLAY SEQUENTIAL CURRICULUM HERE
All rights reserved © 2024, Nature of Art®
No part of this blog may be used or be reproduced in any manner whatsoever including reproducing, publishing, performing, and making any adaptions of the work – including translation into another foreign language without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Nature of Art® Publishing P.O. Box 443 Solana Beach, California 92075.