Our artists have been working on their clay sculpting skills for over a month now! Long term projects like this promote the children's creativity, problem solving, and confidence as they learn to use specific tools and add defined details. It allows them to make mistakes and start over if they choose. They also learn about the properties of clay, like what happens when it is wet versus dry. Clay also builds strong hand muscles which promotes fine motor development needed for writing and drawing. Lastly, clay requires patience, as they must wait for their projects to dry, and try several methods to get their desired outcome. Jewel carefully uses her fingers to push beads into a triangular piece of clay. Apollo begins to make a robot. He chooses small pieces of clay to forms the head, arms, and body, while looking at a photo for reference. He compares and contrasts his clay robot to the photo. Madeline uses her own popsicle stick airplane as a visual reference! She observes ho...
