Plasticine molding is a very useful and necessary activity for children. It helps them develop and train memory, attention and imagination, develops motor skills of fingers. Even the smallest kids can create simple crafts from plasticine if their parents devote time to this process and help them master this simple form of creativity.
Acquaintance with plasticine
For the first time, one year old child can be introduced to plasticine. This material will interest him, as he is able to change his density, turning from solid to soft. It is not necessary at the very beginning of classes to tell the child what to do. The kid should first study plasticine well and try to use it on his own.
Children from 1 to 2 years old playing with plasticine will not take more than 5 minutes, children in 2-3 years can concentrate their attention no more than 20 minutes, and after 3 years the child is able to devote a long time to sculpting, creating real pictures and compositions with animals, plants and characters from fairy tales and cartoons.
How to interest a child
Before embarking on modeling clay with a child, you need to understand that the baby will not be able to play with him for hours on his own. This lesson should be attended by parents. Mom or dad should prepare the child for modeling in a playful way by telling a fairy tale or playing a scene with toys. It is necessary to give a kind of impetus so that the child understands that he needs to blind.
The simplest plasticine crafts
The easiest way to teach your baby to use clay is to create applications. On a white album sheet, you need to draw simple pictures, the details of which the child will fill with plasticine. First, you can "paint over" parts of the picture, smearing plasticine with a finger on the sheet. Later you can show how to roll up "sausages" and balls of the right size and, pressing them down, fill them with a picture.
Templates for simple crafts from plasticine can not be drawn on their own, but you can take ready-made ones. They can be black and white or color. Popular templates for this type of activity are pictures of a ladybug, watermelon, fly agaric, tree, flower, etc.
Occupation with a child can be diversified by playing hide and seek with plasticine. For this, the baby is given, for example, a sheet depicting an illustration from the tale "Gingerbread Man" when he met a fox. The parent asks to hide the bun so that the fox does not find him. The role of the child is to cover the bun with plasticine so that the fox does not eat him.
Plasticine "treats"
Also, simple plasticine crafts for children are all kinds of foods and sweets. It is not difficult to create such unpretentious treats, but in the process the child develops fine motor skills and his own imagination. To attract a child to modeling, you can first tell a story using soft toys and children's dishes. And the story will be that the bear came to visit the bunny to drink tea, but the bunny ran out of all the treats. It is necessary to offer the child to help the bunny and the bear, making them many, many sweets.
Such simple crafts from plasticine is very easy to make step by step. For example, to make candy, you need to roll out a small "sausage", and stick along the edges of the ball. For a pretzel, you need to roll a "sausage" and twist its ends, and for a bagel, a "sausage" is enough just to close in a ring. The pie is made a little more complicated: the ball rolls, then it is gently flattened, folded in half and pinched at the edges.
You can create not only plasticine sweets, but also vegetables with fruits. It is easy to make an apple from a small ball to which a cake is attached in the form of a leaf. For a fungus, it is enough to roll a small red ball, flatten it with your fingers and place it on a plasticine column of light color.
Sausage-based figures
Beautiful and simple crafts made of plasticine can be sculpted from "sausages" of different colors and sizes. The most favorite among children is the pyramid, for which it is necessary to mold several multi-colored rings from “sausages”, make a base and a rod, and at the end string it with rings.
From the "sausages" you can even build a whole house. To do this, you need to prepare many small pieces of plasticine and roll them into tubes. These will be logs. You need to take 4 "logs" and put a square on a special board from them. Next, again you need to take 4 prepared tubules, place them on an already finished square and slightly press down so that they stick well. In this way, "erected" the wall. The roof can also be made from ducts or cakes. Then you need to make a window and a door in the house.
Crafts from "Koloboks"
From plasticine balls, you can fashion many different animals and funny people. In this matter, it is important to use the imagination of the baby, and not as close as possible to the original figure. Indeed, the main task of creating simple crafts from plasticine is not modeling a masterpiece, but the child’s education and interest.
Snowman. You need to roll up three small balls of white plasticine and put one on top of the other, gently pressing them against each other. Next, use the stacks to designate the eyes, nose, and mouth. Mom can make a carrot nose and a bucket for a snowman.
Tumbler. To do this, roll two larger balls and two small ones. Large are put on top of each other. This is the body and head of the figurine. Small balls stick on the sides. These are tumbler pens. The face of the toy can be drawn in a stack.
Gingerbread Man. Of course, the child already knows perfectly how to roll a kolobok from plasticine, but this time you should add variety and offer to sculpt it completely, that is, make a kolobok of the eye, mouth and nose from plasticine. You can mold him legs, pens and even a hat.
Plasticine crafts with cones
Some parents, walking with the kids in the park, collect and bring home acorns, leaves, twigs, cones, which can later be used for creative work. Simple crafts made of cones and plasticine are very popular among children and parents, as they help to develop imagination, perception of colors and shapes, learn to create compositions from improvised materials, stimulate the development of mental abilities of a child.
A Christmas tree and a hedgehog are the simplest crafts from cones and plasticine, which you can easily teach your baby.
To make a Christmas tree out of an ordinary cone, you need to roll many small multi-colored koloboks and stick them in a chaotic manner on the cone, and at the end make a plasticine base so that the Christmas tree can stand on the surface. You can also tie the thread to the top of the craft and hang it on a real Christmas tree.
Hedgehog. This is a very cute and interesting craft. From the opened cone, the body of the animal is created, and from the clay, its muzzle. To do this, roll a small ball and attach it on one side of the cone, use your fingers to form a nose, and make small eyes out of small balls. On the cone, you can put small plasticine apples and mushrooms, and install the hedgehog itself on some colored leaf, creating a real composition.
Ball clay
Recently, plasticine ball appeared on the market of children's toys. It is a foam balls bonded with glycerin or gel. Both of these adhesives are safe and will not harm the baby. The color scheme of ball plasticine is very diverse - from gentle pastel tones to bright saturated colors.
It is impossible to stain such plasticine either yourself or the surrounding objects. It is suitable for older children and toddlers. Simple crafts from plasticine in the form of an application or volumetric figures from this material will look very unusual. You can choose hardening or non-hardening ball clay, it is also coarse-grained and fine-grained.
Without the active participation of parents in the sculpting process, even the simplest crafts from plasticine will become a difficult task for a child of any age. In order to involve the baby in the game, mom and dad must explain everything, prompt and show the baby. Only then will the child be able to enjoy and benefit from this activity.