What can a teacher do to encourage a child's problem-solving skills while playing with clay?

Encouraging a child's problem-solving skills while playing with clay involves engaging them in critical thinking and exploration. Asking probing questions about the clay's properties effectively stimulates a child's curiosity and promotes cognitive development. This approach encourages them to experiment, hypothesize, and discover various ways to manipulate the material. Questions such as “What happens when you roll it?” or “Can you make it flat?” lead to active engagement, allowing the child to explore texture, shape, and composition, which all contribute to the development of problem-solving skills.

In contrast, taking the clay away when the child becomes frustrated could hinder their exploration and foster a negative association with attempting challenging tasks. Copying a clay design from a picture may limit the child’s creativity and expression, as it typically leads to a focus on replication rather than exploration and innovation. Providing ready-made clay shapes does not encourage problem-solving; instead, it gives the child predetermined structures to use rather than fostering their ability to create and think critically.