These beautiful mosaics are ideal for preschoolers to create, & offer lots of opportunities to explore colour, pattern, textures & more.
We started by flattening the clay using a rolling pin until we had a smooth even surface. This was great for encouraging gross motor control & offered an opportunity to explore the contrasting textures of the clay. To create a shape for our mosaic we used a selection of cookie cutters.
One of the many things I love about this project is that children of all ages (preschoolers & up) can independently create these mosaics. Younger children may enjoy pushing a handful of beads into the clay to create a pattern, whereas older children may prefer to create a specific pattern adding one bead at a time. The magic thing about these little beads is that they'll display their colour whichever way they are inserted into the clay, & will stay in place once the clay is dry as long as they're pushed in far enough.
The cookie cutters create simple outlines to follow, but we discovered it was easier for younger children to add the beads to the cookie cutters while still in the clay. This created a clearer shape & made the mosaic stand out.
We added a hole to this butterfly mosaic so it could be threaded once it was dry & used as a decoration.
Other mosaics were turned into colourful coasters.
Adding the bright beads to the grey clay really made their vivid colours stand out which was great for encouraging colour recognition & exploring any repeating patterns. A little more math could also be explored as you find how many red beads, yellow beads etc there are tucked away in the clay.
This was such a simple activity but it produced some amazing art.
Looking for more mosaic activities?
You might like to see our Mosaic Hearts,
or our Outdoor Mosaic Art.
You might like to see our Mosaic Hearts,
or our Outdoor Mosaic Art.