Children in nursery enjoy play dough. There are several things to remember to keep this activity fun for the children, the teacher, and the carpet.
- Place a plastic tablecloth (or someting similar) under the table and chairs.
- Provide toys, such as cookie cutters and rolling pins, to be used exclusively with play dough.
- Don’t allow other toys to be used at the “play dough table”.
- Be sure that the children only use the play dough while seated at the “play dough table”.
- Make your own play dough using the following recipe or another one that is similar. Keep the entire batch the same color. This eliminates the impossible task of trying to keep colors from being mixed or the discussion about who gets which color.
- Put away the play dough, play dough toys, and plastic after Play Time. It is most successful to have play dough available only once during nursery, so decided which time is best for the children.
- If the play dough gets dropped, pick It up immediately. It has a tendency to travel into the carpet on the bottom of shoes.
- When play dough time is over, check for any spots on the carpet and brush away before the play dough hardens.
Play Dough (similar to commercially available Play-Doh)
This recipe makes a soft dough that can be brightly colored. It is edible, although it tastes terrible.
1 cup flour
1 tablespoon salad oil
1 cup water
½ cup salt
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
Food coloring (1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon paste type coloring, unsweetened drink mix (Kool-Aid) or liquid food coloring)
Combine flour, oil, water, salt, and cream of tartar in a large saucepan. Using a wooden spoon, stir over medium heat. Stir constantly to prevent sticking. The mix will be soupy and then suddenly stick together and can be stirred into a ball. When it thickens, remove from the heat and continue stirring. Turn hot ball out onto a floured surface. When it is cool enough to handle, kneading until it is smooth and silky (a silicone mat can be used and no additional flour is needed).
Add desired food coloring by kneading, adding more until the desired color is achieved. To avoid staining your hands with the concentrated color you can wear gloves or use plastic wrap. When the color is distributed the color won’t stain your hands.
Note: If you plan on coloring the entire batch the same color, the food coloring can be added before the mixture is cooked.
Keep in an airtight container or Ziploc bag.
Other uses of play dough:
- With supervision, this play dough could be made by the girls during Activity Days. It could be used as a service project for the nursery or made for gift giving.
- The dough could be used during Activity Days or teaching situations (sharing time or classes) for the children to make visual items to correlate with the lesson.
