Creative Small World Play with Clay

Begin by making a “giant cookie” shape in your hands. Squeeze and press the clay into a flat, round shape.

Gently press the circle into your plate and smooth it a bit as you go. Add clay if needed to cover the entire middle circle section of the plate.

At this point kids might want to experiment with pressing different textures into the clay, by using clay tools or a popsicle stick to create marks all over the surface.

Now it’s time to choose a theme. Kids love the classics like Fairy Land with mushrooms and little stone paths, Unicorns, or Jurassic World with a little volcano and dinosaurs.

Once they have a theme, it’s time to add clay details:

Mushrooms are easy to make: simply add a flattened pinch pot (a bowl shaped from a ball of clay) to a coil (sausage shape) to create.

Little houses can be modeled by flattening each side of a ball of clay into a cube. Use the flatness of your worktop to help with this.

Pointy trees can be shaped by making coils and then gently pressing one end into a point. Children could also add little figures made from coils to their small worlds.

When using air-dry clay, the most important step is remembering to gently score both surfaces to be joined (using the skewer). Add water and press the pieces together, then smooth to ensure a good join. Otherwise, any clay additions will promptly fall off when they dry!

Of course, if you’re using playdough this doesn’t matter as your small world is temporary.

Children will have fun decorating their small worlds with a variety of craft materials. There really is no limit to the types of materials to give them.

Brightly colored feathers and pipe cleaners, natural materials like leaves & flowers, sparkly materials like glitter craft foam, sequins and fake jewels are all fun choices.