Last Updated on July 1, 2022 by Brie
Air-dry clay is a very easy sculpting tool to use in first-grade homeschool routines because it brings in all of the lessons surrounding sculpting without the need for heating the clay. It is also relatively easy to clean up as far as clay goes.
The Concept of Scoring And Slipping Clay
You can teach the concept of scoring and slipping clay with air-dry clay. For air-dry clay, it is not always essential to score and slip because most of the time, the clay will stay stuck together as long as it is smoothed back into one piece. However, getting into the practice of scoring and slipping while working with clay will help kids in the long run.
Score means to simply put hatch marks into pieces of clay you want to join together, where you will be connecting them. Slip is watered down clay. It is typically the consistency of honey. For air-dry clay, you don’t need to make a slip, you can just use plain water. After you have scored a piece of clay, you put some slip on it and then stick it to another piece of clay. You can smooth the edges together for a more polished look.
The Importance of Scoring and Slipping with High-Temperature Clays
Scoring and slipping are important when using oven-baked clay or kiln-dried clay because the slip helps the clay mold together better, eliminating air bubbles forming in the piece. Air bubbles in kiln-dried clay will cause the clay pieces to explode within the kiln. This will destroy the piece and oftentimes break pieces around it. If you get the opportunity to use a kiln for your homeschool routine, you will want to let the clay piece dry for a few days on a tabletop, then for a few days in a low-temperature dryer to remove all of the air bubbles before sticking it in a kiln. If you want to glaze the clay, you will have to run it through a kiln a second time. You cannot bake and glaze kiln-dried clay at the same time.
For oven-dried clay, however, you can paint it before you bake it in the oven. You also don’t have to let it air dry before baking it.
Why You Should Use Air Dry Clay for First Grade Homeschool Projects
Air-dry clay is by far the most accessible clay to use in your homeschool art routine because most of the project can be completed by your child. You don’t have to worry about working with anything hot around kids ages 6-7. Furthermore, the mess with air dry clay is pretty minimal. If you work with the clay on a smooth, hard surface, such as a table, over floors that are easy to mop up, you shouldn’t have a problem wiping up dried clay dust.
Clay is dusty, but air dry clay doesn’t become dusty until the residue drys on the work surface. Thin films of air-dry clay start drying within an hour, so you will have some mess to wipe up. Make sure to wipe up air dry clay, as it is never good to breathe in clay particles. The good thing about air dry clay is that most dust and residue stick to the surface and do not go up in the air. So clean it with a wet towel, paper towel, or Clorox wipe.
You can also try to cover your surface with newspaper, parchment, paper, or wax paper, but these papers can stick to the clay very easily if your child is rolling out a project and maybe more frustrating than just wiping off the table surface.
Simple Modeling Tools For Air Dry Clay
You can get regular clay sculpting tools if you want your child to have experience working with a sculpting set. Typically these come with special cutting tools and spatulas. Or you can go a cheaper root for first grade and use your regular kid’s safety scissors, toothpicks, and forks.
Toothpicks are great for making the scoring marks or hatch marks, while safety scissors work well for cutting the clay, so the edges are smooth.
How To Paint Air Dry Clay
Air-dry clay sculptures, like most sculpture work, are a multi-day process. It will take 3-5 days for your air-dry clay to completely dry. If you are using white clay, then it will be as white as a sheet of copy paper before it is ready to paint. You can use acrylic craft paints to paint air dry clay, or some watercolor paint pens also work.
Fun Projects to Do with Air Dry Clay
You can use air-dry clay for many crafts and projects in first-grade homeschool routines. The Crayola air-dry clay seems to be the cheapest and easiest to clean up, so you can grab a resealable tub of air-dry clay for your homeschool art supply cabinet to work on projects throughout the year.
How to Make Dry Clay Food Replicas
If you are working on cooking, home economics, or a food unit in your homeschool routine, you could make miniature air dry clay food replicas. My Cardboard World is an excellent youtube channel that might inspire your kids while they work on making miniature food replicas or other fun miniature air dry clay accessories. The owner of this channel makes daily kid-appropriate videos on how to make fun miniatures homes with all of the trimmings out of air-dry clay, fabric, cardboard, and other household supplies.
You can also make an air-dry cake replica. Simply roll out a small ball of air-dry clay and press it into a cylinder shape. Then roll out small round balls for the icing toppings. Score and slip the icing toppings to the top of the cylinder to make your cake. You can add extra detail by using a toothpick to carve out a wavy line halfway down the body of the cylinder that serves as the icing line.
How to Make Air Dry Clay Snakes
Air-dry clay snakes are one of the simplest projects you can do. Simply roll out a long strand of clay by making a ball and then rolling it on a flat surface with your hands. You can then coil the clay into a snake’s shape. If you notice the clay is cracking, it is not moist enough, so moisten your fingers with the slip or water and rub the snake’s body until it is smooth for a more polished look.
How To Make Air Dry Clay Cityscapes
Making cityscapes is a fun art project to incorporate into your lessons if you are working on geography. Many first-grade curriculums take a “tour around the world,” which lets kids become various landscapes, cities, landmarks, and countries. You could make some of the places in your geography lessons out of air-dry clay.
How To Make Air Dry Clay Movie Characters
If you are looking for a fun art project that incorporates a movie day, then try making some of their favorite movie characters out of air-dry clay. Olaf from the Disney Frozen series is easy to make out of air-dry clay. You will need:
- 2 medium-sized balls of air-dry clay
- 4 small balls of air-dry clay
- One J shaped piece of clay the same size as the medium-sized balls
- A small cone shape for the carrot nose
- Three very tiny air-dry clay worms for the tigs on Olaf’s head
You will want to press each of the balls of air-dry clay, so they are flat on the top and bottom. Stack the two medium-sized balls on top of each other, then use the “J” shaped piece as Olaf’s Head. Be sure to score and slip between the pieces for an extra tight hold. Put the three worms on top of Olaf’s head for twigs and attach the cone-shaped clay piece for the nose. Finally, the four small balls are gently pressed flat on the top and bottom as the arms and legs. If you want, you can make two small pieces of coal for the front of Olaf’s body.
How to Make an Air Dried Clay Flower
Making an air-dried clay flower is a simple homeschool art project with your first grader. First, you start out by making one of those clay worms, and you can use it as the stem. Then roll up a ball of clay for the center of the flower. Finally, go ahead and make flat ovals for the petals and the leave. Stick the pieces together using the score and slip method.
Free Printable Sculpting Mats
If you want some fun playdough of clay sculpting mats to help your learner with letter recognition, then we have some free printable alphabet playdough mats with a fun unicorn pink theme you can download from the printable library. It comes with 26 full-color playdough mats! Plus check out all the other fun, pink printables we have to offer.
Sum Up The Lesson
Air-dry clay is a simple, low-mess sculpting medium you can easily use during the elementary school years of your homeschool curriculum, making it the perfect supply for first-grade homeschool routines. After you let it dry for a few days, so it is “bone white” or as white as a sheet of copy paper, you can paint it with cheap craft acrylics. You can get fancy sculpting tools to mess with your clay, but this isn’t necessary. Toothpicks, safety scissors, and forks work just as well.
Check out more fun arts and crafts projects on the Mommy Daughter Love Blog.
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