Have you noticed a child’s happy shriek when it hears the word ‘clay’? There is a glint in its eyes and smile of the lips and eagerness to play the clay! Children love the feel of mushy clay and how it forms shapes in their little fists. They see clay as joy as it allows them to be dirty and messy at times. Also, squeezing, pinching, pounding, and stomping the clay allows the children to release their energies and at times also their aggressiveness. At their age clay becomes a source to vent it all out!

Emphasizing on activities that enhance multiple intelligences, the pre-primary students participated in Clay Modelling activity which aimed at improving the students’ dexterity and strengthen motor skills, besides developing their interpersonal, logical, bodily, and intrapersonal intelligences. The students were given clay of various colours to let them pound, pinch, flatten, tear, poke, squeeze, coil, roll and bend it into different shapes and sizes.

Many students were lost in their own world playing with clay as they explored, smelt, push, and threw it. Some children were also engrossed in dramatizing scenarios as they pounded and pressed the clay. The teachers helped the students make various fruits, vegetables, animals, and toys out of the clay. Clay modelling stimulates imagination, helps students to identify shapes, colours, sizes, objects, etc. besides enhancing problem-solving skills in them.

Later, the students were making some shapes on their own and proudly showing their teachers the snake, fruit, lizard, etc. they made. The clay modelling activity added to the happiness index of our little learners!