Sunday School or Bible Clubs > Crafts > Nativity crafts > Clay Sheep

Toll out air drying clay such as hearty and use pencils or other similar shaped objects as guides so that the clay thickness remains uniform.

Use a toothpick or bamboo skewer to cut away the clay to from the head and behind. Just draw the legs on--don’t cut the legs all the way through.

Roll the extra clay into a large ball for the head, and a small ball for the two ears.

Cut the small ball in half with the skewer, then press the pointy tip of the skewer into the flat side of the half ball to form the inside of the ear.

Wet the face with your finger tip (notice the bottle cap filled with water) and lay the head and ears on the body base. Gently press to secure, but don’t press so hard that you ruin the shapes.

Press black beads into the clay for eyes, or wait for it to dry, and draw eyes with a marker. Press two nostrils into the nose with the pointy end of the skewer.

Draw curls into the body to represent the wool. Or, make a cool tool to make this step really easy! Use two pairs of pliers to curl a short length of plastic coated wire into a spiral. Hold one end of the wire with one pair, and hold the other end with the other pair. Keep twisting one pair of pliers until it has formed a spiral. Leave one end uncurled to hold as a handle. These are really quick to make, so you can make one for every student (or ever other student.) Then they can quickly stamp the design onto the sheep rather than laboriously drawing each spiral.

The easiest way to make sheep ornaments is to make two balls of clay--a big one for the body, and a small one for the head. Put each on the table and flatten with your palm. Rub a little water on the body, and press the head onto the body. To make legs quickly, cut 2 Q-tips in half, and poke them into the body. Use a toothpick to draw spirals for the wool. (or make a cool tool as described in the last step below.) Once the clay has dried, draw the face with black marker. glue on decorations such as green felt leaves and red map pins or red beads.

cool spiral tool

Sunday School or Bible Clubs > Crafts > Nativity crafts > Clay Sheep Christmas ornament

Hearty is just one of several brands of light weight modeling clay sold in craft stores. This is such great stuff for making seasonal ornaments. It is tough, so even if you drop it, it won’t break. It is very light weight, so it won’t make tree or wreath branches droop under it’s weight.

Make a cute storage box for the clay ornaments. Cover any small box with wrapping paper. Any empty box will do, such as a cracker or cookie box that is large enough for the ornaments to fit in. Another option is to use juice, milk, or whipped cream cartons. After they have been washed and dried, cut the top half for flaps. For the design on the left, leave 2 opposite sides long, but cut the top round rather than leaving square. Then cut a slit in each flap so they can inter-lock. For the design on the right, cut off one side, but leave the other 3 sides long. Cut the two sides at an angle so they will form flaps to fit into the box.