Autumn Play Dough

Today I experimented with a different type of play dough, “bubble dough” made from cornflour and hair conditioner.  Last February we experimented with a variation of bubble dough using cornflour and hand wash in our “Frozen” bubble dough play.  It gave a soft, but crumbly texture compared to regular play dough.  Our bubble dough this time was shiny, soft, a little bit slimy (like bubble gum) and eventually it became crumbly.  As we have been exploring Autumn this month, I decided to dye the dough to reflect the colours of the season. 

I poured the cornflour into a bowl and gradually added the hair conditioner, kneading each part until it was completely mixed together.  Then I added the food colouring.  This part was a little tricky as the hair conditioner was a pink colour, so I had to vary the quantity of food colouring I added to each batch of dough to get the desired colour.

I presented the dough to the boys and together we made Autumn leaves.  Unlike other play dough projects, it didn’t matter if the different colours became mixed up as it made the Autumn leaves look more realistic.

What we used:

1 part hair conditioner

2 parts cornflour

Food colouring

Matching Animals with their Fossils

I created this activity for our Noah's Ark theme, but it could be used with any animal-related activity. The ancient story of Noah and the historic traces of animal remains preserved in rock formations seemed to go together, so I thought I'd give the boys their first lesson in paleontology by creating fossils and seeing if they could match up the animals with their fossils.  I should point out that the animals I chose were not related to actual fossils that have been found (or at least not intended to be - apart from the dinosaurs of course!)

To make the fossils, I used the recipe for salt dough which I borrowed from this website, using only half of the ingredients recommended (as this activity didn't require such a large quantity of dough).  I pressed the animal figurines into the dough and gently pulled them away.  The animals with intricate features seemed to work particularly well (such as the octopus and the gecko).  I cut around the animal patterns and lifted the fossils onto a baking tray and put them into the oven at 100 degrees for about an hour and a half. The temperature should be high enough to dry out the dough, but low enough to prevent it from cooking.  

Once the dough felt hard, I removed the baking tray from the oven and let the fossils cool.

I set up the activity by presenting the boys with a basket of animals which included the animals with a matching fossil.  The activity required them to match up the animals with their corresponding fossil. To help the boys do this, I gave them a clump of playdough that they could use to test out the patterns that the animals made.

What we used:
Salt
Plain Flour
Animal Figurines
Knife
Playdough

Please click here to see our other Noah's Ark-related activities.

"Frozen" Bubble Dough Play - Only Two Ingredients!

We decided to experiment with a different type of playdough today.  I've seen various recipes for "bubble dough" or "ice cream dough"(as it's sometimes called) on the web.  The dough is made from essentially two ingredients: cornflour/starch and a washing product (such as washing-up liquid or conditioner or bubble bath).  As we had some cheap handwash lying around, I decided to make ours using this.

I poured a small packet of cornflour into a bowl and then gradually added the hand wash kneading the dough and handwash together for a few minutes until I got a texture I was happy with.  (The quantity of corn flour and hand wash I've given below may vary according to the type of cornflour and handwash you use).  The playdough was extremely soft and colder than normal playdough.  It was tougher to break in two, but broke cleanly and also crumbled when rubbed between the fingers. It smelled divine!

What we used: 
A small packet of corn flour/starch
A third of a bottle of hand wash
Aqua glitter
Aqua and silver foil snowflakes
Disney Frozen figurines
Cake sticks

Originally, I hadn't intended to incorporate a "Frozen" theme, but when I combined the cornflour with the blue handwash, it blended to an aqua colour.  As I had glitter and foil snowflakes of a similar colour, I added these.  I gave the boys some cake sticks and their "Frozen" figurines and left them to play.

Advent Calendar 2013 Activity - Day 19: Make Christmas Playdough

Trying to convey the idea of snow to a two year old who has only ever known temperatures of 30 degrees is a little hard going.  There is a Baby TV programme over here that features two snowmen, so I thought it would be a good idea to introduce the idea of snow by making playdough in the shape of a snowman.  The recipe I used came from the crafting blog site Nurturestore.  I created a batch of the dough and then separated half which I dyed green and red (although the food colouring I used for red always produces a pink instead!).   I added three pots of spices (cinnamon sticks, cloves and star anise) to use to decorate our snowman.  If Wugs learned nothing else from this activity, he learned the word "snowman".

What we used:
Corn flour/starch
Salt
Cream of tartar
Vegetable oil
Silver glitter
Green and red food colouring
Cinnamon sticks
Cloves
Star anise

Play Dough Gift Tubs

It was Wugs' birthday party today and I was in a rush to complete my play dough gift tubs which I added to the party bags for the children to take away.  They were a fairly inexpensive gift to make.  I made a couple of batches of play dough using the recipe from this site and dyed it blue, green and red and filled the tubs to two-thirds.  The remaining play dough I dyed yellow (which came out a darker yellow than I anticipated).  I added some gold glitter to the yellow play dough and filled the tubs to the top separating it from the first batch of play dough with wax paper.  Finally I inserted a cookie cutter and they were ready to go.

What we used:
Playdough:
Flour
Salt
Vegetable oil
Cream of tartar
Food colouring
Glitter

Cookie cutter
Small tubs