Susan: Where are you on Long Island, Nassau or Suffolk??
Have a great Picasso festival, Picasso also was gifted at ceramics. Have them
make animals with the arms and legs of a pinch pot. See what they come up
with. Give them plastic knives for texture to add to the clay for hair,
scales, whatever. Possibly introduce them to gargoyles for really outrageous
pinch pots. These don't have to be fired, any modelling clay will do.