You don't have to brave the chill to enjoy the beauty of winter. Make sparkly snowflake sculptures and experience winter from the comfort and warmth of your home. Sculpting clay is a great way to boost fine motor skills, and the resulting sculptures make festive decorations for the holidays.
What You Need:
- White modeling clay or compound
- Glitter in shades of silver or opal
- Clay molding tools such as pencil erasers, craft sticks, or even a spoon
- Tempera paint and a thin paint brush (optional)
What You Do:
- Begin the activity with an excursion outside while it's snowing to observe the snowflakes. Encourage your child to catch a few flakes in his hand. Look closely at each snowflake and try to observe any differences.
- Now begin your sculptures. Have your child take out the modeling clay and start pulling and kneading it. Once it has softened a little, add some glitter and continue kneading.
- Once the glitter is spread throughout the clay, he can begin to mold it into snowflakes. Encourage him to be creative and design a variety of snowflake shapes with the clay. Use the modeling tools to add texture and pattern.
- Once he's finished molding the clay, he can add some color to his sculptures by painting them with the tempera paint.
- Let the paint dry, then display!
Did You Know? Each snowflake has its own unique shape, but almost all have hexagonal symmetry. This means that, like hexagons, they usually have six distinct points and six lines of symmetry. Does your child know what symmetry is?
By Erica Loop
Erica Loop has a MS in Applied Developmental Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh's School of Education. She has many years of teaching experience working in early childhood education, and as an arts educator at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh.
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