Clay & Play-Dough Sculptures

If you haven’t tried a clay or play-dough process art lesson with your students or kids- it’s a must!

Hot Potato Art Studio collaborates with several schools offering a range of fine art to process art lessons.. Process art is perfect for our preschools.. What is process art? It’s where we focus on the creative process over the final product. Students are given the chance to explore a variety of materials and be as creative as they would like.. A great place to start is with a play-dough or clay sculpture lesson!

If you don’t have access to clay or you’re looking for a budget-friendly option, start with homemade play-dough.

Here's the recipe that we used: 

Mix the following ingredients together.

1 cup flour 

1/2 cup salt 

1/2 cup cold water (add in slowly) 

You can add food coloring or paint to the mixture, but we skipped this step to keep prevent stained hands.

The trick is to offer a variety of additions to build with, but to only present one at a time. Otherwise, it can be overwhelming for students.

You can use a variety of additions- pretty much anything laying around the house or classroom, but these are some of the things we used:

• straws

• small pipes and tubes

• popsicle sicks and skewers (or the older students)

We presented a small ball of play-dough on a paper plate. Then we added in straws. We also provided scissors so they could cut the straws to their desired length.

Their imaginations started to take over!

Eventually, we offered plastic tubes and popsicle sticks. With a combination of guidance, discussion, and creative freedom, each child was able to make their own unique sculpture.

Try this at home or in your classroom and send us a picture!