18 Jan Nursery and Reception Enjoy Learning through Clay!
Our youngest children in Nursery and Reception have been loving the messy tactile experience of open-ended clay play. It has been fantastic for developing their fine and gross motor skills and for stimulating speech, language, collaborative play and creativity.
We explored rolling, shaping, modelling and pressing objects into the clay to see the imprint, and experimented with different objects to see which materials imprinted better – hard or soft? The children also made their own models – we have had giant’s castles to rotten lollipops, snails, butterflies, cats, space rockets, monsters, dinosaurs, or just the exploration of the malleability and the soothing nature of clay! The children noticed that the clay smelt, looked and felt different to the play dough that we normally use. They could draw a correlation between clay and the mud in their playground! We also had discussions about clay as a natural resource and where it can be found! This clay project has been quite a hit in the early years as the imaginative and creative opportunities are endless!