Salt Dough & Terracotta Ornaments

Do you like to make seasonal crafts with your children? Do you love creating memories this way? We do in our home! We made our special terracotta (baked) ornaments for this year and decorated them. We had so much fun making them and the best part is that this craft is beneficial emotionally and physically for your children. Find out how here!

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Here is a beautiful round-up, full of ideas for you to make at home with your children.

Making seasonal crafts benefits your children physically

How, exactly?

Crafts help children practice:

fine motor skills (writing, cutting, designing, tying, etc)
gross motor skills (large brush strokes, kneading clay, etc)
following instructions (order in steps to create something)
different artistic techniques (sculpting, painting, coloring, etc)
sensory skills (soft, smooth, grainy, etc)

Go Go Cutting and Pasting 2-4 (Gakken Workbooks)12 Sensory Processing Toys – Tools Variety Bundle Activities for Gross Motor Skills Development Early Childhood

Making seasonal crafts benefits your children emotionally

Again, how?

Crafts help children learn:

cultural traditions (holidays that are celebrated and observed in their culture and in other cultures)
family traditions (holidays they observe and how)
family collaboration and closeness (parents play, work and learn with their children)
creativity (children can explore textures, designs, originality)
a love for art (in general or a particular art form)

These are the terracotta ornaments that we made at home last week, in preparation for this year’s holiday. We had a blast making them and decorating them. The number one thing my children are looking forward to is putting them on the Christmas tree when we get one next week.

For our project, we used:

Polyform Sculpey Original Polymer Clay, 1.75-Pound, Terra Cotta Kare & Kind® Set of 20pcs Smart Dough ALEX Toys Artist Studio Wooden Dough Tools Set

Terracotta, clay or salt dough (enough for each child to make at least one ornament)
Design tools (if desired)
Cookie sheet (for baking)
Oven (for baking)
Acrylic paints
Ribbon in Christmas patterns, solid colors or assorted patterns (about 3/8 or 1/4 inch wide and about 5 inches long for each ornament)
Christmas Spirit and Cinnamon Bark essential oils by Young Living (if you are interested in essential oils and how they work, feel free to visit my website and be sure to scroll down to the bottom of this post for a December Special I have going on right now)

Before we settled on our final designs, we played and explored with the terracotta alone. Then I exposed them to a shoebox full of tools to expand their exploration and play.

We then decided on our final designs and baked them. After they cooled, we painted them. The ribbons to hang them from were added to each one the day after we made them. We then added one or two drops of Christmas Spirit or Cinnamon Bark essential oils by Young Living. They both smell so amazing and bring so much joy to our hearts.

This is our final product. They are so excited to hang them on the Christmas tree!

And now, for the beautiful round-up of salt dough and clay ornament-making activities.

Apple Cinnamon Ornaments by The Life of Jennifer Dawn

Picasso Inspired Tree Ornaments Kids Can Make by Kids Activities Blog

DIY Bread Clay Recipe for No Bake Ornaments by Fun at Home with Kids

Baking Soda Clay Handprint Keepsakes and Baking Soda Clay Ornaments by mama.papa.bubba

White Clay Dough Ornaments by Happy Hooligans

White Clay Ornaments Tutorial by The Imagination Tree

Homemade Clay Recipe: Pumpkin Pie Spice Ornaments by Blog Me Mom

Frozen Olaf Salt Dough Ornament by I Heart Arts & Crafts

Salt Dough Clay Ornament Banner (recipe and tutorial) by Schooling a Monkey

We are so happy to have joined us in reading about our terra-cotta-making activity. We hope you have learned of new ways to encourage your children to grow to love Art as they grow closer together creating memories as a family.

Which ornament post was your favorite? Which one will you try this year?