PLAY IDEA: Marble Playdough

My daughter, Miss B loves playing with her little brother and she asked if we could make some playdough. I love playdough, it's so easy to make and most of the time, we have all the ingredients sitting in our pantry. We use a basic playdough recipe, that I also use at Playcentre.

Miss B told me "Mum - the easiest way to colour the playdough is to make a hole (well) in the middle of the playdough, add the food colouring and then 'smush' it together in a plastic bag". This is what we got...MARBLE PLAYDOUGH!

Miss B was actually surprised it came out with a marble effect - this wasn't what she thought, but in her mind, it was SO MUCH BETTER. And off she went to show her little brother, who thought it was pretty cool too.

BASIC PLAYDOUGH RECIPE

Ingredients:

3 cups flour

1 1/2 cups salt

6 tsps Cream of tartar

2 Tbsps Cooking Oil

3 cups Boiling Water

Method:

Mix the dry ingredients and cooking oil together, then add boiling water. If working with groups of children, divide quantities amongst the bowls. Stir well until the mixture leaves the sides of the bowl. Add more flour if the mixture seems to sticky, then turn out and knead.

GLUTEN FREE PLAYDOUGH

Ingredients

1 cup Rice flour

1 cup Maize Cornflour

1 cup Salt

4 tsps Cream of tartar

2 tsps Vegetable oil

2 cups Hot Water

Method:

Combine all ingredients together in a pot and cook over a low heat stirring as you go until the mixture leaves the sides of the pot and reaches a dough like consistency. Turn out and knead.

(Recipe credit: Recipes for Messy Play)

Playdough cannot be ‘done wrong’ and is a satisfying sensory experience for young children.

Playdough is easy to mould and manipulate therefore helping children to develop hand, eye, arm and body coordination. They are also developing their finger and hand muscles through squeezing, patting, rolling, poking and pinching. They (the children) can break it into small pieces, roll, cut and make shapes out of it.

Add tools for cutting, pressing and shape-making e.g. cookie cutters, twigs, straws, pipe cleaners, and shells. Cups, bowls and pots & pans will encourage 'home play' and you can add props such as animals, rocks, dinosaurs to encourage dramatic play.