We Love Play Dough

Making Play Dough

Very often we go to the fridge and replenish the play dough with the dough that families have donated. Every once in a while though, the timing is just right for the children to make a fresh batch with some inventive touches.

They have wonderful ideas to help us make bright, vibrant colours.

The children are very used to being in the Suzuki kindergarten kitchen. We know the terrific opportunities the children have to learn so many things in the kitchen... but mostly, they have a natural love of mixing and making recipes.

Why stop at the bright colours?!  The best thing about the 

play dough that the children make is that 

it's not just a feast for the eyes.

It also smells great!  The children add potpourri and there is a fragrance that fills the air as they feel the roughness of the dried stems when they knead the dough.

A little glitter here...

Some sprinkles there...

And voila! Perfect play dough to excite the senses and the imagination!

Snowmen At Night - Part 1

         Oh those 

          wacky

         wild

         wily

         whimsical

         snowmen!

  What are they up to

             at night?         

After reading this fun story with a rhyming verse, it was only natural that we found ourselves making salt dough to fashion snowmen of every shape and size.  
The children worked together to make the dough, then divided it among themselves and began making their snowmen, decorating them each in their own unique way.

Some of the children reached for the sparkles after stacking little balls of dough atop each other.  Other children had different ideas.

Noodles, toothpicks, tubes and beads adorned many of the snowmen as the children added eyes, smiles, hair, arms and legs.  "My snowman is cold!  He needs a blanket."

A nice blanket of foam filling was just the thing the children needed to make their landscape. The snowmen were placed carefully about the 'snow'. They looked like a joyful bunch! But, we soon found out that the snowmen were hiding some wild and wandering ways behind their smiles.

But... that's Part 2!

Making Playdough and Baking Clay

Playdough is a very important centre in our classroom. Not only does it encourage children to be artists, sculpting and creating with a new and exciting medium, it helps build the essential fine motor strength and control needed to be successful writers later on.

Instead of using pre-made playdough from the store, we encourage the children to help make it with us in the kitchen. This provides them with a cooking experience that encourages procedural language (when discussing the steps of the recipe), measurement (when counting and scooping out the ingredients), and personal/social development (turn taking).

The children are often very eager and excited to play with the dough because they are personally invested in making it!