Monday 13 January 2014

Valentine's Day Theme Sensory Dough Invention and Play Ideas

Yesterday we decided to experiment with making our own type of dough to play with. 


How we made it:

We mixed 2 parts corn flour (about a cup here), red powder bath colouring (we use Acorn Kids products - contact me to find out more, but red food colouring would work - just might stain clothing etc.) with 3/4 parts moisturizing body lotion (we used vanilla scent, but rose scent might be nice for Valentine's theme),then we added about 1 part cake flour to make it less sticky. 

How we played with it and what we learnt:

My nearly-2-year-old, Mr 2, enjoys adding all the measured ingredients to the bowl and then mixing together with various implements (eg. Spatula, spade, sticks, cutlery). The powder bath colour worked well as it turned a dramatic red colour as we added the body lotion....We needed a brief pause here to apply lotion to all old mozzie bites and already-healed cuts and scrapes- a very serious task!

I think Mr 2's favorite part of the activity, was adding the cake flour and then transferring the remaining flour, using various implements, to the mixing bowl...the flour holds the same kind of fascination for our Labrador, Moby (see pic), although I think he just wanted to eat it!

Mr 2 then selected the confetti hearts to add to the dough - I was quite keen for reds and purples, but of course Mr 2 wanted blue, so we had all 3 colours.  I emptied the chosen colours onto the floor and we named the heart's colour (blue, red, purple) and size (we had big hearts and baby hearts).  Picking the flat hearts up off the floor was great fine motor pincer grip learning and then pushing them into the dough provides sensory feedback for gentle pushing and forceful pushing ( where the heart disappeared down into the dough).

We cut out a few heart shapes and moulded the dough into animals and cars, but I think play dough still wins here as this dough didn't hold its shape very well.

All that said, it was great making our own recipe and the dough was really soft to play with (and smelled like body lotion)...mmmm!

Other ideas for next time or for you to try at home:

Most play doughs consist of mixtures of cake flour, salt, corn flour, vegetable oil, glycerine, food colouring and various essences and texture elements, so we could still try many other combinations for different sensory rich experiences. See our Pinterest board on www.pinterest.com/artytots for recipes that other people have pinned...

I've seen some recipes for dough that use hair conditioner rather than body lotion, so you could try that too...

Please share your ideas and play dough inventions with us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/artytots)!

Tuesday 17 December 2013

Christmas snacks for the birds..and dogs..and toddlers...

Tam's ArtyTots and ArtyKidz

 

Here's one for the birds...and dogs...and toddlers....




So, after bouts of throat infections etc. (in the middle of summer!), I've been struggling to get my toddler to eat anything...then comes our arty session for the birds today... M. ate two whole bread stars with peanut butter, so although you could use stale bread for this one, I recommend good bread and you might get a few bites into your tot too!

The background to our experimental bird treats for today was a "candy cane cereal decoration" that we made a few days ago (great fine motor skills development threading the holey cereal onto pipe cleaners!), that our birds still haven't touched.

Here in the Southern Hemisphere we have an abundance of fruit on the trees at this time of year and so our birds seem to be picky (it might also be due to the glitter pipe cleaners that I used, so I'll make a few more in plain colours to check in the next few days).

So, we tried a few different things - salt dough stars and worms, toilet rolls cut into spirals, paper plate wreaths and toast cut into star or angel shapes - all covered in peanut butter and honey with wild bird seed mix sprinkled on top!  The birds went CRAZY and nearly all the seed has been pecked off within a day!

Here's how we did it...

*mix of half peanut butter, half honey
*salt dough ornaments (already baked/hard) OR toilet roll spiral OR toast OR paper plate wreath

M. ate a few paint brush fulls of the peanut butter before we mixed it with honey and spread it onto the ornaments...he then really enjoyed sprinkling the seeds onto the sticky ornaments/toast/paper plate wreath with his hands (I thought this was great as he still doesn't like the feeling of Gloop (cornflour and water)!) We then chose our spots in the trees to hang our creations and waited for the fun to begin....

 



The dogs felt a bit left out (their favorite chew toys as puppies were peanut butter cow hooves, so the smell of peanut butter still drives them crazy), so we made them peanut butter biscuit treats! M. loves getting them to sit and then presenting them one at a time with the biscuits...

 

The scientist is me immediately starts comparing our experiments and wondering why some bird feeders were better than the others...situation, taste, reflective surfaces, bird species, time of year etc....but for today, we just had fun experimenting!!

 

Here's one for the birds...and dogs...and toddlers....


CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS FOR THE BIRDS (/dogs/toddler)!


So, after bouts of throat infections etc. (in the middle of summer!), I've been struggling to get my toddler to eat anything...then comes our arty session for the birds today... M. ate two whole bread stars with peanut butter, so although you could use stale bread for this one, I recommend good bread and you might get a few bites into your tot too!


The background to our experimental bird treats for today was a "candy cane cereal decoration" that we made a few days ago (great fine motor skills development threading the holey cereal onto pipe cleaners!), that our birds still haven't touched.

Here in the Southern Hemisphere we have an abundance of fruit on the trees at this time of year and so our birds seem to be picky (it might also be due to the glitter pipe cleaners that I used, so I'll make a few more in plain colours to check in the next few days).

So, we tried a few different things - salt dough stars and worms covered in a peanut butter and honey with wild bird seed mix sprinkled on top!  The birds went CRAZY and nearly all the seed has been pecked off within a day!


Here's how we did it...

*mix of half peanut butter, half honey
*salt dough ornaments (already baked/hard) OR toast OR paper plate wreath



M. ate a few paint brush fulls of the peanut butter before we mixed it with honey and spread it onto the ornaments...he then really enjoyed sprinkling the seeds onto the sticky ornaments/toast/paper plate wreath with his hands (I thought this was great as he still doesn't like the feeling of Gloop (cornflour and water)!) We then chose our spots in the trees to hang our creations and waited for the fun to begin....



The dogs felt a bit left out (their favorite chew toys as puppies were peanut butter cow hooves, so the smell of peanut butter still drives them crazy), so we made them peanut butter biscuit treats! M. loves getting them to sit and then presenting them one at a time with the biscuits...



The scientist is me immediately starts comparing our experiments and wondering why some bird feeders were better than the others...situation, taste, reflective surfaces, bird species, time of year etc....but for today, we just had fun experimenting!!

ArtyKidz Academy Christmas Holiday Workshop @ Fourways Gardens

We had so much fun at our first ArtyKidz Academy Christmas Holiday Workshop in the Fourways Gardens Park!  Here is a snapshot of the fun!  I was so impressed with all the artwork from the kids aged 4 to 10 years - particularly gorgeous thumbprint reindeer gift tags! Thanks to all the kids who joined us and particular thanks to mom, Carole, for all her help during the workshop (and for the great photos she took while my hands were full of salt dough and finger paint)!



Sunday 1 December 2013

ArtyTots @ Fourways Gardens Kids Christmas Party - Play dough and WaterPlay

We had so much fun at our first ArtyTots promo at the annual Fourways Gardens Kids Christmas Party!

Thanks to all the kiddies and moms/dads/grannies and nannies who joined us!  

We hope to see you again soon at our Christmas Workshops in Fourways Gardens Phase 1 Park...tots age 18 months to 4 years on Saturday 7 December from 9 to 10 am...Kids ages 4 upwards (and any crafty arty parents or grandparents) on Thursday 12 December from 9am till noon.  Booking essential and spaces are limited. Email us at ArtyTotsFourways@gmail.com by 5 December to secure your place and for more details.  Cost R100 per person. 

Here are a few pics of the messy blue soap putty (Acorn Kids),shaving cream and sparkling tinsel in the water play table and the ginger bread and candy cane scented play dough tables....the kids came up with such great ideas of their own with play dough cookies and gingerbread pictures!

 









Friday 15 November 2013

Painting on newspaper

Such fun painting on newspaper - and hands and feet and floor and glass doors! - was even more fun than painting on white paper as Matt could look for faces, hats, cars etc. to paint in the color of his choice!