Working with Clay
Did you know clay is better than playdough?
Ever wondered why children mix all the playdough and gleefully scrunch up their creations?
That’s because playdough is a sensory wonderland—soft, squishy, and endlessly inviting. It’s made to be malleable, to squish between fingers, and yes, to blend into one glorious shade of brown when multiple colours are at play. For children, the process is the magic, not the final product.
But what happens when we offer a different kind of material? One that invites patience, persistence, and purpose? Enter clay a material that transforms play into a powerful language of thinking, creating, and expressing.
Working with Clay: A Resource for Families and Educators
Inspired by Margaret Brooks’ “Authentic Art with Children”.
Why Clay?
Clay is a natural, responsive, and sensory-rich medium that slows children down and encourages mindfulness. Its weight, resistance, and malleability invite persistence, creativity, and intentionality. Unlike playdough, which is often soft, uniform, and used in short bursts, clay demands presence and provides ongoing opportunities for revisiting and reworking ideas.
Clay is more than just a medium—it’s a language of expression. In early childhood settings, clay invites children to explore form, texture, and spatial relationships. It fosters creativity, fine motor development, perseverance, and symbolic thinking. According to Margaret Brooks, clay supports authentic artistic learning when children are given time, space, and quality materials to explore their ideas. Loris Malaguzzi’s concept of the hundred languages speaks to the many ways children express themselves—through drawing, building, sculpture, movement, storytelling, and other forms of expression. Clay is a particularly powerful material in this framework, offering a deeper and more responsive experience than playdough.
Honoring the Hundred Languages with Clay
Clay becomes a language of thought and expression—just like painting, drawing, or storytelling. When children work with clay, they:
Think with their hands: Sculpting an idea into form requires spatial awareness, imagination, and symbolic representation.
Communicate ideas: A clay model might represent a home, a memory, an invented animal, or a feeling.
Negotiate and collaborate: Group work with clay builds social-emotional skills and co-construction of meaning.
Explore stories and theories: Children can recreate events or test out scientific and architectural ideas through 3D form.
Reflect and revisit: Clay sculptures can be observed, discussed, revised, and extended upon in future sessions.
Tools and Materials
Clay Type:
Natural air-dry clay (preferred for sensory richness and formability)
Terracotta clay
Avoid polymer clays for younger children as they are less tactile and can be toxic.
Basic Tools:
Wooden clay tools (paddle, knife, loop)
Rolling pins (mini and standard)
Wire cutter (for dividing clay blocks)
Sponges and water container
Textured items (doilies, shells, bark, leaves, stamps)
Boards or canvas to work on
Damp cloths or plastic to keep clay moist
Small containers for slip (clay mixed with water for "gluing")
Optional:
Toothpicks or skewers for fine detail
Clay stamps or cookie cutters (used purposefully)
Simple Techniques to Start With
Rolling & Flattening – Use hands or rolling pins to flatten the clay.
Pinching – Create simple pinch pots or animals by squeezing and shaping with fingers.
Coiling – Roll clay into ropes and spiral them to build forms.
Joining – Score (scratch) both surfaces, then use slip to attach.
Texturing – Press objects into the clay to leave impressions.
Carving & Mark-making – Use tools or sticks to draw or etch into the surface.
Building Up – Layer pieces to create more complex 3D sculptures.
Encourage children to explore the properties of the clay—how it bends, breaks, sticks, and holds shape—without rushing toward a finished product.
Setting the Scene
Offer clay regularly in an uncluttered space.
Provide small quantities at first, encouraging sustained interaction.
Use low trays or wooden boards to define the work area.
Keep materials consistent to build familiarity over time.
Respect the process over product—allow children to squash and remake, rather than preserve everything.
Clay as a Language of Expression and Inquiry
Margaret Brooks emphasises that children’s art should be treated as a form of thinking. Clay can be used:
To Express Ideas
Invite children to represent something meaningful: a story, dream, object, or feeling.
Ask open-ended questions:
“What does this remind you of?”
“Can you tell me about what you’re making?”
To Extend Learning
Link clay to current interests: e.g., bugs, homes, dinosaurs, maps.
Use clay to reconstruct moments from play or life: “Can you make the playground?”
Document children’s processes with photos and stories to reflect their thinking back to them.
To Explore Design & Representation
Introduce basic architectural challenges: “Can we build something that stands tall?”
Use clay for small-world design or environments.
Combine drawing and clay: plan a design on paper first, or sketch what was created.
Supporting Children’s Inquiry Through Clay
Here are some provocations and project ideas:
“What lives underground?” → Invite children to sculpt imagined creatures or tunnels.
“Design your dream playground.” → Use clay to plan and test miniature structures.
“Let’s sculpt the sounds we hear.” → Abstract expression using rhythm and pattern.
Story sculptures: after a shared book, ask children to recreate part of the story.
Mapping with clay: shape landscapes, rivers, or imagined worlds.
Continue these inquiries over multiple sessions. Clay should be revisited, not treated as a one-off activity.
Notes for Families
Try using a baking tray or placemat at home as a work surface.
Focus on describing children’s actions instead of praising the product:
“I see you’ve made lots of little lines there” or “That shape looks sturdy.”Resist the urge to reshape or “fix” their work—authentic expression thrives on autonomy.
Store damp clay in a sealed bag for reuse.
Clay is a living material that responds to touch, pressure, and time. It slows children down, invites observation, and opens space for storytelling and reflection. When children work with clay authentically, they’re not just making art—they’re constructing meaning, developing ideas, and communicating in three dimensions.
As Margaret Brooks reminds us, “Children's art is not about learning to draw or sculpt—it’s about learning to think, to imagine, and to represent their world in ways that matter to them.”