Sensory play Archives - Let their light shine!

Let’s make play dough at home!

Let’s make play dough at home! It’s cheap, easy and much better than shop bought. Play dough is great for children to develop their fine motor skills, lots of squishing, squeezing, rolling and pinching! It’s also good for developing language – talk about the shapes you are making, how the play dough feels, name the cutter shapes you might be using. Chat while you play.

Let’s make play dough recipe

Ingredients:
2 cups of water
2 cups of plain flour
1 cup of salt
2 tbsp cream of tartar
2 tbsp of cooking oil (NOT olive
oil or nut oil)
food colouring (optional)
Instructions:
1.Place all ingredients in a large microwaveable bowl.
2.Heat in the microwave on full power in 50-second bursts,
stirring in between, until all the ingredients are almost
combined.
3.When almost combined, reduce the heat time to 30 seconds
between stirring.
4.When combined, tip onto a floured surface and knead until
smooth (It will be hot at first, so be careful!)
5.Store in an airtight container for up to 3 months

Here’s a downloadable version of the recipe for you to print and keep and share

playdough Download

If you’ve never made play dough before here’s a few photos to show the different stages –

Just a few notes

Choose your food colouring wisely – some colours just aren’t as nice once mixed in to the dough

Add a scent if you like

Olive oil will make the dough sticky and unusable – save your money and use a cheap vegetable oil

Use cheap flour

If you prefer you can cook the dough in a large pan over a low heat, stirring all the time.

There are lots of ideas for making play dough mats on the web. Here’s a link to one site.

Easy to make finger paint

Easy to make finger paint that uses three ingredients (and one of them is water!)

I spent quite a while searching on line for ready made finger paints but was put off by some of the reviews. I really don’t want children breaking out in a rash because of allergies. The best thing about making something yourself is that you know what’s in the end product.

I found several recipes for home made finger paint and decided to try out the one from Rainy Day Mum partly because I had quite a lot of Corn flour (cornstarch) left over from making crown shapes.

It’s a fantastic recipe. Really quick to make and if you use a mug for the measurements there is a lot. I cooked my finger paints without any food colouring. Once I was happy with the consistency I split it between four bowls and added different colours.

finger paints in bowls showing the bright colours

Finger paint can be used on paper or card or on a plastic mat. You can encourage children to paint with it, make marks on paper and/or just enjoy the texture by mixing the colours on a plastic mat.

A fairly sturdy paper plate makes a good canvas.

You can also use these paints to add decoration to shapes and pictures. Here’s a crown made from Bicarbonate of Soda and Corn Flour dough with some finger paint decoration. You can see in the picture that home made finger paints add texture too!

You just need to be careful that the paint doesn’t get onto furniture or favourite clothes. If using in a toddler group let parents know beforehand so they can dress themselves and their toddler appropriately. Have some aprons for the children to wear and some baby wipes handy.

To store the finger paints use an air tight container. It will keep for a couple of weeks.

let’s play with dough..

I love playdough, especially the homemade variety. It’s relatively cheap and lasts a long time and gives hours of fun and creativity.

You can make characters from Bible stories with it, add it to laminated print outs, make shapes – anything. It’s great for young children to practice their fine motor skills and exercise their hand muscles ready for writing and drawing. It’s also good for keeping children focused on a sustained activity – they often willingly concentrate on playdough for quite a while.

The above playdough is a no cook recipe – it uses boiling water so has to be made by an adult.

Recipe

1 cup flour

1/4 cup salt

1 teaspoon cream of tarter

1 tablespoon vegetable oil (don’t use a nut oil in case children are allergic)

3/4 cup boiling water

Food colouring paste or ready mix water colour paint for colour

To make add all the dry ingredients to a mixer and then add the oil, boiling water and colouring and mix till a soft dough.

I tripled this amount to make the different colours in the picture.

I added some vanilla extract but I’m not sure it’s worth it – I think you would have to add a lot to really notice a vanilla scent and that would be quite expensive.

I had a play with the dough – a simple tree laminated – here’s a free tree PDF Tree I made an autumnal tree and an apple tree.

Just a few more days to enter our giveway!

wise and foolish builders – Matthew 7

In Matthew 7 we have recorded for us one of the stories that Jesus told. It is a very simple parable about house building. There was the wise man who built on the rock and the foolish man who built on the sand. The storm came and only one house remained – the house on the rock.

Jesus explains the story when he says ‘Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.’ Matthew 7:24.

When telling the story to young children have some rocks and sand to show. They could also enjoy some sensory play with sand and pebbles and have a go at building with wooden blocks in a sand tray before or after the story time.

There is also a well known song with great actions that tells the story – have a listen here and a lego inspired retelling of the story here.

For a simple craft decorate/colour a house. There is space to write Matthew 7:24 or print on a label and stick in the space. Or download the PDF and add the verse before printing out. this is what i should have done as my writing isn’t very neat!

PDF of house for craft House (1)