Using Clay Dough - Instructions for a guiding situation Risto Pieskä, LAO 4SOT12YE

Activity is fun ★, heart of play is pleasure ✪  drive to repeat  mastery Social engagements (new friends, social skills, manners) Learning as playing Self-confidence grows Observations: you get valuable information about the children as you observe them

Prepare the children a day before of the activity by telling them about the coming activity Prepare enough clay dough for the children Make sure you have enough equipments: rolling pins, tools to cut and molds Have some goals to be achieved: getting the children use their imagination and creativity Give a theme, a picture or use music to inspire them Think who needs special attention and think what you need for him/her

 Before the children arrive you prepare the table for them  Put the equipments and the clay dough on table ready for use ( you can also use sea shells, grass, leaves, pebbles as material etc. )  Get the children together who you are going to take for the activity and tell them what kind of work is waiting for them  Instruct them to get their seats and start their work

 You can observe the children the whole time, guide them as little as possible so that they feel like they are the makers of their work  Compliment their ideas and achievements, positive feedback is important  Be fair to everyone and remind them of the importance of sharing (some might start a fight because they want to use the same equipments)

 You check that everyone has done their work ready  You can tell the children to present their work to the group and tell something about it  When they all are done with the presentations give positive feedback of the group  Then tidy up the work area together

 All the children who were involved will help with the tiding up  They know where put the equipments but you can help and show where certain parts go  You take the most intriguing parts away, because some children may want to continue to do something with the clay dough  Thank everyone who helped you to tidy up  After they are done with the tidying up, you can tell them to go play with trains or to go outside etc.

+ You can get the feedback during the activity or after the session On the next day you can ask was it fun what you did yesterday By through observations and feedbacks you can evaluate if you need something more to the session or something less You can give to the children positive stickers on their shirts for good behaviour

The child can express him/herself Work as a team member Learn social skills Use imagination and creativeness Be proud of the end product Learn during play

Word list Achievements=Saavutukset Behaviour=Käytös Child centered=Lapsikeskeinen Drive=Halu/into End product=Lopputuote Evaluate=Arvostella Feedback=Palaute Instruct=Ohjeistaa Prepare=Valmistella Social engagements=Sosiaalisia kohtaamisia Self-confidence=Itseluottamus