Modeling Clay with 3 Basic Shapes: 40+ Step-by-Step Clay Animals for Kids and Beginners

My seven-year-old daughter and I are having a great time with this book!I picked this book instead of Cuxart's other book (Modeling Clay Animals) because it appears to be at a slightly lower level and concentrate on how to use those three basic shapes and combine them in a variety of ways -- my daughter is Asperger's, so tends to be about a year (maybe a bit more) behind in fine motor skills and creativity. It's just about at the right level for her in both required skill level and creativity exercising -- with some help from me. (She has trouble making the teardrop shape, but three animals in and her skills are noticeably improving.) I suspect a typical seven-year-old would have no trouble with these models and would probably be able to make them without parental support, and an older kid would be able to get quite creative with it. I have no art skills myself -- I never really did any clay sculpture building as a kid, and frankly am a little intimidated by it -- and I was amazed how easy it was to make little cute animals; this book is about on my level too, and I'm having a blast! I got it for her along with a Sculpey III polymer clay sampler kit, because I thought it would be neat for her to be able to bake (cure) the animals, and also because we are not that great at proper airtight storage (inevitably something is left out or develops a hole).

The kids love this book. Great ideas and instructions to make. Really cute clay items

This book has many clay projects. All w clear instructions and pictures. It’s truly helpful for inspiring and teaching how to put together little animal figures. Over forty cute, simple animals from basic shapes.

I give these kits with a silicone kid size rolling pin (purchased through Amazon) and additional clay in a plastic box with sandwich bags as presents for 5 years up. There is air drying clay and oven drying clay. The kids like both. In addition, I enclose a simple book on making clay models suitable for kids. The upside is this become the go to entertainment for the kids, alone or with friends. A go to gift for me. And adults will join in too.

I love this book. The ONLY thing missing is a visual or weight to measure how much dough you need for each of the pieces required to make an animal. My kids didn't know how much to use so I would help them measure out pieces by attempting to eyeball and at times, continuously adjust the size of the piece I or she was working with. This caused a lot of pause and so it wasn't a fluid experience and so not a completely positive one as well. If they could revise it with a size visual or a weight of how much to use for each piece and resell it I would buy it.

This book provides enough to get started and spark imagination to go on from there! My son is 6 and loves it. He created just about everything in the book and made some of his own creatures. The colorful pages and instructions are great.

Best modeling clay for kids...no mess.. Awesome colors!!

Colorful step by step directions get the kids into the fun and wanting to try more!

This was perfect for my grand nephews - age 6 and 8. Especially the 6 year old. It explains how to make a few basic shapes, then go from there to make some really adorable animals. You might need to help a bit, depending on the kid's patience and skills, but it's super easy to help them. Even if they are wonky, they still look fabulous. Bake, then paint for finer details if you wish. The older one wanted to make up his own animals and designs, so we didn't really use the book that much for him. This is even good for beginner adults who have no sculpting experience and are intimidated by polymer clay and what to do with it.

Fab I’ve tried a few of the designs already but with baking clay so have had to miss out on some of the wooden parts to help make the figure sturdy

Bought this for my 6-yr old. I really like that the different figures/animals are quite easy. She still needs some help, but together we manage to create something that's really close to the pictures in the book! She doesn't speak English but the step by step pictures are really easy to follow.

Clear, easy to follow instructions with lots of pictures. Simple enough for kids to follow (and easy enough for an adult with no artistic ability to follow)

Easy to follow fun for beginners.