The wonders that clay activities can do for children

Earlier activities like clay work, wood work, and handwork were in the middle of the day. I was designing the timetable as per my preconditioning of working at Waldorf school before.

When children were not happy with tightly packed timings, especially for activities like this, I realized my mistake and moved it to the last period of the day.

Yesterday they started clay work at 3:30 pm and they were completely immersed into it till 5:30 pm. Two hours of complete immersion. With such activities the amount of happiness they receive is incomparable to a screentime.

I’m very sure they slept very well. I will share some text here about how clay helps in the wellbeing of children.

Working with Clay as a Will Activity

Steiner emphasized the importance of engaging the will in early childhood and the lower grades. Clay modeling is a deeply tactile, sensory, and effortful activity that strengthens the will. It requires:

Persistence
Dexterity
Patience
Imagination translated into form

Through shaping clay, the child learns to bring inner images into outer reality —an activity rooted in purpose and intention.

“The will is not merely an inner impulse; it works outward, forming the world.”
—Rudolf Steiner

2. Sensory Integration and the Development of the Senses

Steiner identified twelve senses, including the tactile, life, movement, and balance senses —all of which are activated and developed through clay work. The resistance of clay meets the child’s limb forces in a healthy way, allowing the body-soul connection to deepen.

“The senses are the gateways to the soul.”
—Rudolf Steiner

3. Clay and Formative Forces

Steiner spoke often about formative forces—the etheric or life forces that shape the human being and the world. Clay modeling helps children inwardly experience these forces. Unlike drawing, which is two-dimensional, modeling gives children a three-dimensional understanding of form and space.

“The child must be led to experience form as something inwardly alive.”
—Rudolf Steiner, The Arts and Their Mission

4. Artistic Activity and Moral Development

Steiner saw all true art as having a moral effect on the soul. Working with natural materials like clay fosters a connection with the Earth and an appreciation of beauty, simplicity , and transformation. This is especially relevant in the early grades and in Waldorf Kindergarten, where children shape simple forms—spheres, animals, human figures—through imitation and imaginative play.

5. Modeling in Waldorf Curriculum

Clay modeling is gradually introduced in Kindergarten (free exploration), and more intentionally structured from Class 1 onwards:

Class 1: Simple forms (balls, snakes, apples, animals)

Class 2–3: More refined human and animal forms, houses, trees

Class 4+: Geometric and myth

It is also connected to form drawing and main lesson content, reinforcing themes artistically.