Kids love making shapes with Play-Doh, so they'll love creating their own colorful Playful Clay! While your preschooler gets his hands dirty mashing and kneading the dough, he'll practice color and shape recognition and learn how clay is created. As he forms the dough into his own mini masterpiece, he'll unleash the sculptor within.
What You Need:
- 1 cup (200 g) baking soda
- 1/2 cup (100 g) cornstarch
- 2/3 cup (150 g) warm water
- Measuring cups
- Pan
- Cutting board
- Food coloring or tempera paints
- Newspaper
- Clear nail polish (optional)
What You Do:
- Help your child mix the baking soda and cornstarch in a pan.
- Add water and stir gently until smooth.
- Place the pan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and stir until the mixture is the consistency of mashed potatoes. Pour the mixture onto the cutting board to cool.
- When cool, have your child knead the dough.
- For color, knead food coloring into the clay until blended.
- Let your child explore and create with the Playful Clay, helping him mold it into different objects or shapes like bowls, hearts, or stars.
- When objects are complete, let them dry and harden on newspaper for several hours.
- For extra decoration, use tempera paints to decorate the dry objects. You can also add a shiny coat by brushing the objects with clear nail polish. For another fun and colorful variation, try kneading crushed colored chalk into the dough for a speckled coloring.
This recipe makes 1 1/2 cups of dough, but can be doubled easily. The dough will keep for several weeks if stored in an airtight container, but will dry out if exposed to air.
By MaryAnn F. Kohl
Adapted with permission from "Preschool Art: It's the Process, Not the Product." Copyright 1994 by MaryAnn F. Kohl. Used by Permission of Gryphon House, Inc., Maryland. All Rights Reserved.
Add your own comment