Playing With Play-Doh

One of my favorite activities to do on the first day of school is to let my kids use play-doh.The night before school starts you can find me standing over my stove mixing up a few batches of my favorite play-doh recipe.  If kept in an airtight container, it can last the entire school year.  This stuff is amazing.

Play-doh is a great tool to help children increase their fine motor skills which in turn will help them when learning to hold a pencil.  The muscles we use to hold a pencil are the same muscles used when playing with play-doh.

In the beginning I let my kids just play with it.  I want them to squish it about, build imaginary objects like cookies and such.  After a few times a the play-doh center, I introduce my letter mats.  I show the kids how to roll out the doh using their fingers and the palms of their hands and then shape their snake like doh into the shapes of the letters.  Eventually we work up to using the cookie cutter, alphabet stamps and sight word play-doh mats.

THE BEST RECIPE EVER!!!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup flour

• 1/2 cup salt

• 2 tsp. cream of tartar

• 1 cup water

• 1 tsp. vegetable oil

• Food coloring

DIRECTIONS:

1. Mix the flour, salt, and cream of tartar in a large pot.
2. Mix water, a few drops of food coloring, and oil together in a bowl, then add to the dry ingredients. 
3.  Cook the mixture for 3–5 minutes on low/medium heat while stirring constantly. Make sure you scrape the sides and bottom of the pot as you stir. Add more food coloring if needed.
4.  The dough will start to pull away from the sides of the pot and form a ball.
5. Take it out of the pot when it begins to have a VERY faint brown skin. Place it on a counter or cutting board.  
6. Knead the dough until it becomes soft and smooth. 
7. When the dough is cool, store it in an airtight bag or container. I like to use frosting containers with color-coded labels.

Here a few products you might like to use with Play-doh