This activity will provide your child with the learning opportunity to build their vocabulary by talking about clay forms and structures as they create and manipulate them.

 

What You will Need 

Engaging with Your Child 

Engaging in this activity with your child can help them learn new words through play by linking new experiences with them. You can enhance their expressive language by giving them the chance to create something themselves and providing them with unfamiliar vocabulary during the process. Words are more likely to be used by a child when they are used in play.  

Begin your activity by saying “Today we will play with clay. I wonder how you can shape clay so it goes up (raise your hand up), or shape it so it goes out (move hands horizontally to indicate a row)”. Give your child a ball or lump and allow them to explore the material. As your child works with clay, stretch, twist, stack and roll clay yourself. Observe your child’s creation and make brief comments with clay-related vocabulary such as “Ball, coil, lump, piece, strip, stack, row, column”. For example, “I see you’re rolling the clay into balls” or “I see you stacked lumps of clay on top of each other”.