It seems like an obvious recipe, and indeed it is, but here’s a picture recipe in case it helps:
Start with the Classic Playdough Recipe.
Whole Child Development
by notjustcute Filed Under: Create, Learning through Play and Experience 2 Comments
It seems like an obvious recipe, and indeed it is, but here’s a picture recipe in case it helps:
Start with the Classic Playdough Recipe.
by notjustcute Filed Under: Create, Learning through Play and Experience 2 Comments
Finger-painting is an experience that no preschooler should be denied! Plunging bare fingers right into the mushy, colorful goodness and then spreading color directly from finger to paper is a gratifying experience for both the young and the young at heart! It promotes fine motor development, and is ideal for children for whom manipulating tools is difficult. It is also a fantastic sensory experience, both for touch and also for smell and sound depending on the medium used. There are plenty of different ways to do finger-painting (I’ll try to give you a few to choose from on this site) but perhaps one of the easiest ways is to use shaving cream! Shaving cream is a great medium from an adult perspective because it’s cheap, accessible, and extremely washable. Kids love it because it’s foamy! (OK, I love it because it’s foamy too.)
by notjustcute Filed Under: Building Readers, Celebrate!, Learning through Play and Experience, Positive Guidance and Social Skills Leave a Comment
Bartholomew and the Oobleck is an enthralling story to read with children! It follows a king who wants something new to come from the sky, so he orders his magicians to make “oobleck”. As with many alterations of Mother Nature (Michael Jackson comes to mind) this, of course, turns out to be a disaster! It is only remedied when his page, Bartholomew, convinces him he needs to say the words, “I’m sorry.”
by notjustcute Filed Under: Building Readers, Learning through Play and Experience 3 Comments
What child wouldn’t love the chance to unearth the mysteries of dinosaurs? Here’s how I gave some preschoolers the chance to be paleontologists!
by notjustcute Filed Under: Learning through Play and Experience 6 Comments
My own boys love playing in colored rice! They’re not the only ones though. I had a tray of colored rice sitting on my counter one day when my friend dropped by to visit. During our conversation she began running her fingers through the grains, scooping and dumping as we talked. After a while she said, “There’s just something soothing about this stuff!” It’s true, the feel of rice sliding through your fingers, the soft rustle of it as it falls into a pile, there’s something that just captivates young and old not so young alike. So here’s how to make your own batch of colorful rice.
Pour a tablespoon or so of rubbing alcohol into a quart size ziplock bag. Add food coloring and mix. Pour in about a cup of dry rice, seal the bag, and gently work the bag until the color has been evenly distributed through the rice. Spread the rice out onto a wax paper lined cookie sheet and allow it to dry completely. (Note: You’ll want to wear gloves and an apron to prevent staining while preparing colorful rice!)
by notjustcute Filed Under: Create, Learning through Play and Experience Leave a Comment
It’s colorful, cheap, and a little bit slimy. What’s not to love? Goopy goop, is pretty much colorful paste. Get a few of the plastic bottles they sell for hair dye. Fill them about 1/2 full of flour. Add water and food coloring or water color powder. Adjust the flour to water ratio if necessary so that the goop is thin enough to be easily squeezed out, but thick enough that you can basically write with the stream that comes out. I used it in my sensory bin and included some paint brushes for mixing colors.
This activity increases fine motor control and strength, both key for future writers. It also is a great opportunity for creativity and sensory development.
by notjustcute Filed Under: Create, Learning through Play and Experience 1 Comment
Here’s a quick way to create a new art medium. In a jar or baggie, pour in enough regular, table-grade salt to equal the amount of total colored salt you want to end up with. About a teaspoon at a time, add tempera paint powder. (If you don’t have paint powder, and you’re in a crunch for time, just smash a small piece of colored chalk into powder. My prefered method is to put the piece in a plastic baggie and stomp on it.) Mix the salt and color together thoroughly. Voila! You have colored salt! I use this several ways. Pour some in a cookie sheet or art tray and let children write in the salt with their fingers (for this, you really want to be scant with the paint powder to reduce the mess factor). As you can see in the picture, I put some in baby food jars, poked a few holes in the lids and glued them on. (Those of you who get ideas more than 5 minutes before you need them, could actually go to the store and buy cheap salt shakers, or even collect old spice bottles as you use them up.) I’ve seen these colored salt shakers used to shake onto glue pictures at the art table and into shaving cream at the sensory table. I’ve even reconstituted the tempera paint with salt to create a new texture. The kids really like the bumpy look and feel of their salty paintings! End up with some colored salt that you don’t need anymore? Use it to make playdough and you don’t have to add any color! No wonder salt was once used as money in ancient times. It really is versatile and fun stuff!
by notjustcute Filed Under: Learning through Play and Experience 15 Comments
by notjustcute Filed Under: Building Readers, Learning through Play and Experience, Snack Time Leave a Comment
This fantastically fun read is by one of my favorite authors, Robert Munsch. He began as a storyteller who always knew how to get and keep a child’s attention, and was later convinced to put his stories into print. This silly tale follows a little boy through his mischief as he makes pretend cookies out of playdough and serves them to his unsuspecting family and friends. It’s sure to grab the interest young children as they join in the repetitive text and absorb the outrageous illustrations of the characters’ outlandish reactions to eating playdough.
Each time Christopher makes a new cookie, this book implements a fantastic use of onomatopoeia with a repetitive text that just begs for kids to join in. Here’s how I do it (words in italics from the text):
In early education, there is too much distance between what we know and what we do. I bridge the gaps that exist between academia, decision-makers, educators, and parents so that together, we can improve the quality of early education while also respecting and protecting the childhood experience.
Content Copyrighted (2008-2024), Amanda Morgan, All Rights Reserved