Come Indoors and Make Play dough: Video Version

Just in time for all the holiday fun! Make play dough for fun, learning, and great conversation. Watch our Youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qL1WpveL8jY for all the ways simple play dough making and playing benefits your children.....

Here are more: Handy Recipes 

 Keep these around the house so you are always prepared for unexpected weather or visitors. 

  

    No Cook Play dough

Mix together: 1 cup flour, 1/3 cup salt in a separate bowl. Mix together ½ cup water, 3 drops food coloring, and 5 drops liquid detergent. Add liquid to dry mixture slowly and knead until desired consistency. Do not ingest. Keep refrigerated in a tight plastic container. It lasts for about a month.

    Clay Dough

This dough can be used to make small sculptures, garden stones, vases for dry flowers, and paperweights. Mix 2 cups salt and 2/3 cup water in a pan. Heat mixture until the salt is completely dissolved. Remove from heat. Mix 1 cup cornstarch and ½ cup cold water in a separate bowl. Stir quickly into the salt water and mix well. The dough will be stiff. Allow to dry 3-4 days.  Add food coloring to the water mixture, if desired. Dried sculpture can be painted. Look for animal, people, and car pictures to help children use their imagination. This mixture must be used immediately.

  Coat any container or pie plate with Vaseline or cooking spray for use as a mold. Press the dough into the mold. Add old jewelry or fake gemstones into the mold first.  Then add the dough. After thorough drying gently remove from the mold.

    Bumpy Texture Clay

  Use this dough for doorstops, summertime garden stepping-stones, and flower pots. They will crack if left over the winter. Mix 1 ½ cup flour and ½ cup salt. Add 6 tablespoons water. Knead to create the clay. This clay must be used immediately. The dried clay may be painted and spayed with polyurethane (adults only).

    Cotton Puff Dough

This is so simple. Mix 1 cup flour with 1 cup water to make a paste. Add 1 bag cotton balls and mix thoroughly. Scoop up a handful and let excess fall away. Form into desired animal or other shapes on a baking sheet. Bake for 1 hour at 325 degrees. Paint when cooled.

    Never Fail Play dough

This is the recipe used in the video. Mix 1 cup flour, ½ cup salt, and 1 tablespoon cream of tartar. Add 1 tablespoon cooking oil with 1 cup water colored with food coloring. Cook in a 3 qt. saucepan over medium heat until mixture sticks together. Remove from heat. Cool slightly. Knead. Store in plastic bags.

How Does This Help Children?

  Children who are read to twice a day and played with often, enter school with 20,000 words instead of a 3,000 word vocabulary.

For more easy fun activities see the our book “Learning Through the Seasons” at museums, bookstores, and http://grandparentsteachtoo.org  and listen to podcasts on WNMU Radio 90 at: http://wnmufm.org/learningthroughtheseasons.  

Great News! Podcasts On the Air at WNMU Public Radio 90

Starting this month, our Learning Through the Seasons activities for your children and grandchildren can be heard on your Public Radio dial...90.1 FM. WNMU broadcasts from Northern Michigan University, Marquette, MI. Our Podcasts will be On Air every Tuesday afternoon at 4:30 and every Saturday morning at 8:30. Give a listen.

You can also go to the WNMU Podcast webpage to hear any of the posted audio activities. If you are looking for quiet, active, science, reading activities all set in the context of social interactions with family and friends. Much to enjoy along the way, while you gather those great ideas to try with your grandchildren.

As always, you can find all our links to media, articles and podcasts on our GrandParents Teach, Too web site. Check us out!

Read, Write and Inspire Your Children

What could be better than reading with your children? Writing stories with your children, of course! Both are excellent activities for reading development but writing stories develops organizational and thinking skills while learning use of language and vocabulary. Sound difficult? Here is a wonderful online tool that can help. Storybird provides all the elements to engage and inspire you and your children, alike.

Materials Needed:

Go to http://storybird.com/ Click Explore to read hundreds of stories written by others just like you. Click Parents for many ideas and ways to share stories. Interaction is big part of Storybird. Making comments and suggestions engages writers and develops social skills at the same time.

What To Do:

Click Create to sign up for your free account. Start your story by viewing an extensive gallery of illustrations to inspire you to “unlock” the stories inside you. You and your children collaborate to develop story ideas that bloom through imagination. Type in your text online and drag the pictures into scenery boards that become the pages of your book. You can easily edit text and rearrange boards at any time. You work is saved as you go along and remains unpublished until you submit your final copy…but it can still be changed anytime after.

Your stories are saved securely online account to share on Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter. Snuggle up with them all on your iPad internet browser,

marking your favorites. All this is free, but you can also purchase hard copies of your books. Print stories on your own printer from downloadable pdf files or order published soft or hard cover books…perfect for sending to friends and relatives for presents. Write your own personal histories and save them in beautiful, professionally illustrated books.

How Does This Help My Children?

Read and write with your children for twice the learning! And because you are writing with online tools, you join a global community of writers, readers, and artists of all ages.

For more great educational activities visit Grandparents Teach, Too web page and listen to WNMU Radio 90 Learning Through the Seasons podcasts.

 

Photos: Storybird website

We Are Now on youtube -- See Your Favorite Activities!!

After a bit of practice and technical trials....you can view many of our favorite activities on youtube.

See live demonstrations of Water Play: Does It Sink or Float?; Making Play "Sand"; Make a 3D Travel Map; Safe Hockey; Making Bubbles...all activities that help children learn and expand vocabulary at the same time. Support children through your interactions, as you will see in our many examples that build confidence and self-esteem.

Hope you enjoy them all...send us your comments and ideas on any of these fun activities.

For more ideas go to our Grandparents Teach, Too Blog: http://grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com/ and listen to Learning Through the Seasons
http://www.wnmufm.org/learningthroughtheseasons.

Podcasts on WNMU Public Radio 90:

Enjoy all your special sharing times with your children and grandchildren!