Playing and Pounding Fresh Play Clay

Time for Playdough Fun!

  About this time in winter young children need to play with something new, and fresh. And families are hoping, inexpensive, please. Like adults, children become restless, out of sorts, and don’t quite know why.  They just are! Often they are like little growly grizzly bears.

  Part of the solution may be making a very simple warm recipe of play clay (dough) and sitting with the children to play, squash, and pound, too.

Cheryl’s Homemade Dough

  This play clay (dough) recipe takes about 15 minutes to make and doesn’t dry up for months in a freezer bag or tight container. It will stay fresh even longer 

Mix It Up In About 15 Min.

in the refrigerator.

  Here it is. Children can help measure the ingredients and stir.  Place 1 cup water, ½ cup salt, 1 teaspoon or more of food coloring and 1 tablespoon cooking oil in a 3- quart saucepan with no heat. Mix well. Stir in 1 cup flour and 1 tablespoon cream of tartar. Cook and stir over medium to low heat until mixture begins to stick together. Do not allow it to become crusty on the bottom. Take out of the pan and cool slightly. Begin kneading like bread dough.

  Young children can help at each step with safety precautions. After cooling they will enjoy kneading the warm fresh dough and squishing it through their fingers.

  Kids love using all the traditional baking tools you may have around like rollers, shape cutters, cookie sheets, spoons, table knives, and cupcake pans. Hunt around the cupboards.   Sometimes the best playdough activities are those when you have nothing but playdough.

Squash and Pound

  Encourage them to pound, make snakes and sausages, and squash. It is a great tension reliever for all ages.

  Children can pound the pile of playdough with both hands, in an alternating rhythm, good for both side of the brain and the rest of their body. Show them how to roll large, medium, and small balls with both hands to developing bilateral coordination. Squash, and pound.

  They can make some pinch pots using the dominate hand. Isolate the thumb and keep the three middle fingers together to turn a big ball into a little flower pot. This exercise helps strengthen the handwriting finger position.

Be Creative!

  Children can create little 3D animals, people, and snowmen.  They love to decorate worms, snakes, and creative insects. Medium sized balls can become segmented caterpillars. They also like making cupcakes from large balls and decorating them.

  Roll out many long thin snakes to make a coil pot. Then fill with little balls for eggs, a bird, or flowers.

  Children can also make plates of food of long thin spaghetti, sausages, beans, chips, and peas. When finished, everyone can squash, pound, and store.

Sketch: Mark Nowicki   

Photos: Fran Darling, fdarling fotos

More Ideas and Activities....see grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com and wnmufm.org live and pod casts on WNMU Radio 90; Youtube video activities; and join us on Pinterest

Adults and Kids Inspire Each Other

Maya Angelou: "You Can't Use Up Creativity"

  “Imagination is everything.  It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.” Albert Einstein
  “You can’t use up creativity.  The more you use, the more you have.” Maya Angelou
  Creativity or divergent thinking is thinking about something in a new way. Children do this when they receive a little Lego kit and change the directions slightly or dig into their bins of Legos and engage their brains to create something new and marvelous. Many libraries have free Lego days families can attend.
  When children have the opportunity to do divergent thinking, they break down problems into parts, think in a new way, and develop their brains. Researchers have found these children also have a more positive mood and higher proficiency in language and math.
Let’s Imagine
   Play a few free creativity games. During quiet times help children retrieve information from memory, compare and contrast, and make connections between bits of information.
   If they were going on a trip to a real or imaginary place what would they take? How is playing in the summer different than during the winter, spring, or fall? How is life different for animals?
  Help kids imagine they are little mice exploring your home. Where would they go first?

How Is Life Different for Animals?

What toys might they like to explore? What if the kids were flies on the ceiling for a day? What would they see from that perspective?
  Give children three objects from the kitchen. If they had to give one back, why would they keep the other two? How many things can children do with three old ties or other objects? Can ties become seat belts for an imaginary plane trip? Can they be snakes? What can you make with three paper towel rolls or three boxes?
Creative Building
 Children may create an indoor fort

Use Brightly Colored Materials and Create

with cushions and blankets. Have a picnic with food, flashlights, stuffed animals, and books.
  This next one requires a little more work and planning, but children love to make robots out of plastic and paper recyclables. Under supervision they can connect pieces with duct tape or a glue gun. Children’s Museums often have creative robot corners and are worth a visit.
  When you think children are ready, they can hammer nails in a log you have brought in.  They can make designs with the hammered nails and add some poster paint for a beautiful sculpture.  They can also hammer the nails different heights to make interesting designs and use different colored markers on the nail heads. Then they can pull out the nails with help if they leave about an inch to wiggle in the hammer.
Children may like to create cars, houses, even a whole village from boxes, tape, papers and markers.
Photos: Fran Darling: fdarling fotos
Maya Angelou: York College ISLGP posted to Flickr.com, uploaded to Commons
More Ideas and Activities....See the authors’ book “Learning Through the Seasons” at area bookstores and grandparentsteachtoo.org. For more help to prepare young children for success in school see the authors’ web site: www.grandparentsteachtoo.org. Also check our audio Podcasts WNMU Radio, 90; Youtube video activities; and join us on Pinterest

Kids Love Putty, Goop, and Gak

Parents and Grandparents need quick recipes for fun when children are bored even though that word has been banished from the house. Easy homemade recipes for Wacky Putty, Goop, Gak, and Glop come to the rescue. All of them have interesting texture and creative possibilities.  Young scientists can experiment and observe what happens when they change the recipe slightly.
 Wacky Putty, Cool Goop
 None of these recipes are edible so make sure no one (or pet) in the house eats them. These first recipes are recommended for ages three and older.
 For Putty, mix one part white school glue (Elmer’s) with one part Sta Flo liquid starch found at grocery stores. Stir the ingredients with a spoon and then knead with your hands.  Add a little more starch if the mixture becomes too sticky. After children stretch it, create a ball, bounce it, roll it into worms and other shapes it may become sticky again. Simply work in a few drops of starch. Three drops of food coloring may be worked in to mix colors and exercise little fingers.
  To make Goop, place one part salt, one part flour, and one part water in a bowl so children can mix it in a circular pattern with a spoon. Once mixed, place in a strong freezer plastic bag or double bag with a strong closure. Place drops of one or more food colorings in the bag so children two and older can squish gently and make secondary colors.
  Spread goop in a box or can and press macaroni while still wet. Allow to dry and paint with poster paint.
Rainbow Glop and Gak
  Rainbow Glop is a fun for toddlers and older. Mix 1/3-cup sugar, 1-cup 
cornstarch, and four cups cold water. Heat on low and stir (adults) until thick. When cool, place in a strong freezer bag (or double bag) and add three drops each of different food colors. Zip lock closed and reinforce top and seams with packing tape or duct tape. Children can squish into rainbow colors.  This is excellent to teach how primary colors mix to make secondary colors of purple, green, and orange. Do not pour any kind of Goop down the sink.
There are Slime and Gak recipes with and without Borax. To make a simple slime mix without Borax use equal parts StaFlo laundry starch and Elmer’s white glue. Other white glue does not work well. To experiment, add a little more starch to the mix until it is stiffer and you can place a straw in it and blow amazing bubbles. Recipes can be refrigerated for several days but are not long lasting. Throw away in the garbage .
Photos: Iris Katers; Fran Darling
More Ideas and Activities....See the authors’ book “Learning Through the Seasons” at area bookstores and grandparentsteachtoo.org. For more help to prepare young children for success in school see the authors’ web site: www.grandparentsteachtoo.org. Also check our audio Podcasts WNMU Radio 90; Youtube video activities; and join us on Pinterest

Creating A Home Art Corner

fdarling fotos

 What would happen if you provided an art corner for your children and supplied them with objects found around your home and in the great outdoors?  What if you read to them every day and took them to the library and provided a literacy-rich environment?  Listen to the words of Caldecott Award winning children’s illustrator, Lois Ehlert, tell us about her childhood experience as described in “The Scraps Book: Notes From a Colorful Life.”

  “When I was little, I read all the books on the library shelf, and I thought maybe someday I could make a book. I was lucky. I grew up with parents who made things with their hands.  Mom loved to sew.  She had colorful fabric scraps, buttons, lace, ribbons and many scissors that she shared with me.  Dad had a basement workshop.  He gave me wood scraps and taught me how to paint, saw and pound nails.  So I had wonderful art supplies and tools close at hand.  In a small corner of my house, Dad set up a folding table for me.  It was my spot to work and dream.

 Ehlert goes on to tell how she created a love of art but not for books right away.  She knew that it takes time to develop dreams. 

Easy Ideas

fdarling fotos

She finds her book ideas and inspiration from the world around her.  For example, shopping for fruits and vegetables gave her the idea for her book, “Eat  She planted a spring garden for her mother using red, orange, yellow, blue and purple flowers. The result was the book “Planting a Rainbow.”  Children could pick and dry flowers to make a rainbow garden picture for you.

ing the Alphabet.” Your children could eat their way through the alphabet for fun.

  “The Scraps Book.” provides several other sources of inspiration including her ice fishing decoy. Your children could make little bird, or other animal decoys with nature scraps or wood glued together and painted.

  Ehlert tells about her art technique called collage.    She describes it as very messy but “when ideas are flowing, I keep working.”  She uses a variety of tools to create texture, including spatter painting with a toothbrush and rubbing a crayon over a grater.  She adds objects close at hand such as toys, food, pinecones, seashells or bottle caps.  The many colorful photographs in the book show the results and give children ideas for their own projects.

Creative Focus

  Why is this important to children?  Creativity focuses on process of forming original ideas through exploration and discovery.  Creative children learn to think and solve problems for themselves.  They learn not to fear mistakes and feel free to invent, create and find new ways to do things – all valuable and much-needed skills in today’s world. 

Photos: Fran Darling fdarling fotos

More Ideas and Activities... See the authors’ book “Learning Through the Seasons” at area bookstores and grandparentsteachtoo.org. For more help to prepare young children for success in school see the authors’ web site: www.grandparentsteachtoo.org. Also check our audio Podcasts WNMU Radio 90; Youtube video activities; and join us on Pinterest.