The Power of Playdough
#Playdough is one of the most powerful resources available to those who have a preschooler or work within #earlyyears. It offers so many developmental opportunities, whether homemade or out of a tub. Playdough stimulates the senses and offers the opportunity for #imagination to run free. But one activity that is typically overlooked is allowing children to make playdough themselves.
🔢 #Maths:
Allowing children to make their own playdough gives them the opportunity to count, measure and estimate quantities of ingredients. It also allows them to discuss and compare size, mass and density. Whilst making our playdough we were able to discuss how full our containers were when measuring ingredients and how they were comparable to the other ingredients they had measured. We also compared the difference between quantities such as a cup and a spoon. You could also include varying size measuring spoons and measuring cups and even a measuring scale depending whether you want children to follow a recipe to make the playdough.
🔬#Science:
Creating their own playdough gives children the opportunity to think scientifically and use scientific skills. They are able to experiment with amounts of ingredients and observe the cause and effect of what happens to the texture of their playdough if they add too much or too little of an ingredient and use critical thinking and problem solving to resolve any issues with texture such as being too wet or too sticky. Children can be given the opportunity to explore different materials and their impact on the texture of the playdough, for example sand.
We were able to discuss temperature, weather and its effect on on oil and other materials. We used solis coconut oil, which he was aware would melt in hot water, so Luke suggested we put our coconut oil out in the sun to melt, which obviously worked. When he had made his playdough he decided to put that out in the sun to see if it changed the texture of his playdough.
🤲 #Physical development:
Playing with and making play dough helps to support the development of small muscles within hands and fingers, supporting the development of dexterity and fine motor skills. Having the opportunity to poke, prod, push, flatten, mix and kneed provides a work out for the critical muscles needed to develop the pencil grip needed to draw and write.
📕 #Reading:
As we are still early in our reading journey here at Love Early Education, when making our playdough we just identified letters from the labels written on the #tufftray in @stationaryisland chalk pens. For older children you can give them written instructions to read and follow to make their own.
💬 #Communicationandlanguage:
There is so much opportunity to develop #language (both general and specific), discuss the process and methods of an activity and ask and answer questions. The opportunity for conversation and interaction when making and playing with playdough are endless.
This is the recipe we used for making playdough:
❤️ 1 cup of flour
❤️ 1 cup of water
❤️ 1/2 cup of salt
❤️ 1 tbsp of oil (any oil will do – we used coconut oil)
❤️ 1 tbls of cream of tartar (we didn’t have any left in, so we skipped this step, so our play dough may not last as long)
❤️ you can also add food colouring if you want to have different colour playdough, we just went with it’s natural colour
The day after we made our playdough, it was still fresh enough to play with so we got a few #looseparts out and had some more play dough fun ❤️ Eventually Luke asked to add oats to the playdough and loved exploring the change in texture, so much so he needed to put him feet in it 😂 We hope you enjoy making your own playdough as much as we have. If you have any playdough recipes or ideas please pop them in the comments, we would love to hear from you.
#invitationtoplay
#tufftray #tufftrayideas #tuffspot #tuffspotideas #EYFS #earlyyears #preschool #enablingenvironments #parenting #homeschool #homeschooling #homeed #homeeducation #homeeducator #unschooling #inspiration
#maths #phonics #earlyreading
#kidsactivities #loosepartslearning #naturallooseparts #loosepartsart #loosepartsinvitation #loosepartsplaykit #loosepartsfortoddlers #loosepartsmaterials #loosepartsmath #makeamesswithlooseparts #montessori #woodentoys #naturaltoys #naturaltoysforkids #activitiesforkids #letthembelittle #letthemplay #playfullearning #sensory #sensoryplay
Love Early Education 