Anderson was the type of kid who put EVERYTHING in his mouth. So in those early days, I was worried about buying play dough in fear he would put it in his mouth. So instead I whipped up a batch of taste-safe play dough and was floored by how easy it is!
My recipe is here (there is another recipe that I use on our Instagram too! Either works. The only difference is how you add the colour):
I actually use homemade play dough in my Color Mixing Science x Art Unit. The unit is designed for the high school special education classroom. But due to the nature of the content, it is appropriate for the elementary years as well. The goal of all my designs is to provide early learner level content with high-school aged graphic design. So much out of the foundational skills content out there is “childish” and not really geared toward the high school audience.
In the classroom, I make the playdough as a class on the first day of the activity. It is a great measurement lesson, as well as General life skill practice of how to use baking instruments. The stirring and kneading also provide lots of gross and fine motor skill building, as well as a sensory component. So the teacher in me naturally couldn’t avoid doing the activity with my 1-year-old 🙂
Then I use my color wheel printable posters from my Color Sorting Activity to teach the students about primary and secondary colors. I go into how you can combine two primary colors to get one secondary color.
On day two we do just that! We take two balls of primary coloured dough and mix them together to make a secondary color. We then lay out all our original colors and created colors in the shape of a color wheel. It really brings the concept to life as you can see in real time how the colors blend together to create a new color. The kneading is a great hand strengthening activity too. So lots of skills being built while having some fun!
Raising Jordans 