Welcome to the Wonderful World of Playdough…

missevie1 ♦ April 2, 2015 ♦ 2 Comments

Where can I begin with the benefits of Playdough? The number of adjectives are countless. As an Early Childhood Educator I cannot imagine my class without a Playdough table – in fact if there was no table set up, the children were quick to ask tell us that we had to make some.

So why have Playdough in your home or class? Well, it can support all areas of development such as;

• Fine motor
• Imagination and Creativity
• Maths and Numeracy Skills
• Science and Discovery
• Language
• Social/Emotional
• Therapy for children with Special Needs – not limited to children with language delays.
• Sensory

And make Playdough? Absolutely! I understand it seems easier and more practical to purchase it, and aesthetically to have a variety of colours is nice – but I’ve never had a child ask for multiple colours. Whatever the Playdough looks like, the imagination of a young child runs wild and colour certainly does not limit their play.

Join your children in making Playdough – it’s a wonderful cooking experience, and for the adult, very therapeutic!

This is an incredibly simple recipe…with a twist.. I added Peppermint Essence to this mixture and to link I coloured the dough green. The options are countless, if you explore your supermarket shelf you’ll see a variety of scents you can add, such as Strawberry, Lavender, Chocolate. Though I would use the scents occasionally as a surprise to your children.

Adding Colour is a wonderful opportunity for your children to make choices and they can explore with mixing colours as well.

Here is the recipe;

• 2 cups Plain Flour
• 1/2 cup Salt
• 2 Tbsp Cream of Tartar
• 2 Tbsp Oil
• Food Colouring
• 1 cup Boiling Water
• Essence (optional)

Firstly combine all the dry ingredients. Add 2 cups plain flour

Pour into mixing bowl

Add 1/2 cup of salt

Add 2 tablespoons cream of tartar

Stir the dry ingredients together

Next add 2 tablespoons of oil. I use regular canola oil

Add to mixture

I chose peppermint essence to add and poured roughly 1/4 of the bottle in – however for a stronger scent, add the whole bottle

Combine the food colouring to the boiling water and pour into the mixture

I prefer to use a metal or plastic spoon (as the colouring can stain) and combine

Once the ingredients are combined and it is not hot to touch, get your hands dirty and knead!

Knead, knead knead!

And here it is!