KidsPrimary School
Help your child make a clay fairy house
This clay art activity is a great craft for children aged five and upwards, and can be customised to your child's own unique creation!
Engaging in arts and crafts activities with your child is not only a great way to spend quality time together but also nurtures their imagination and fine motor skills.
Creating a fairy house out of clay can be a magical experience, allowing your child to bring their own enchanted world to life.
Whether you choose paper clay or air-drying clay, this guide will walk you through the step-by-step process.
What you need
- Paper clay or air-drying clay
- Clay modelling tools
- Wooden skewer
- A very small amount of water in a bowl
- Wire for cutting clay
- Wooden rolling pin
- Wooden board or cloth (porous surface to work on)
- Paper plate
- Dried beans, split peas, and shell pasta
- Small pebbles
- Dried leaves and flowers
- Feathers
- Sticks, matchsticks & popsicle sticks
- Rectangular paper stencil (for wall)
- Semi-circle shaped paper stencil (for roof)
- Glitter (optional)
How to make it
Create the base:
- Help your child press the clay into the paper plate, adding more as needed for a thick base.
- Encourage your child to add texture using their fingers or clay tools.
Make the fairy house walls:
- Roll out a flat slab of clay about 1.5cm thick, resembling a pancake.
- Place a paper stencil on top and lightly trace around it with a wooden skewer.
- Cut the clay following the stencil and remove any excess.
- Carefully curl the rectangle of clay inwards into a circle, forming the walls.
- Join the walls to the base by scoring and adding water to both surfaces before pressing them together.
Cut out a door and windows:
- Use the wooden skewer to draw and cut out a door and windows in the clay walls.
- Remember to keep the windows small to prevent collapse.
Make the fairy house roof:
- Help your child use a semi-circle-shaped paper stencil to create an upside-down cone-shaped roof from a clay slab.
- Experiment with the size of the paper cone until it fits.
- Roll up the cone roof and join it together before placing it on the walls.
- Optionally, attach the roof to the walls by adding a clay coil inside and smoothing the walls and roof together.
Decorate your fairy house and garden:
Let your child’s imagination run wild with natural materials:
- Create a pebble garden path.
- Use leaves as trees and matchsticks as a tiny picket fence.
- Press beans or shell pasta into the roof for tiles.
- Add small sticks to the door for a wood-like appearance.
- Mimic window panes by fixing tiny twigs into the window cavities.
- Enhance the garden with dried flowers.
Add a touch of magic sparkle:
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- Help your child sprinkle glitter all over the fairy house and garden for a magical finishing touch (this step is best done outdoors).
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