Salt Art

On a piece of paper glue salt in a desired design. 

Next, use food colours/water colours and a pipette to colour the salt.  

Puffy Paint

How to make puffy paint:

Equal parts of Elmer's glue and shaving cream

Add a few drops of food colouring/water colour

Mix and Voila 

Have fun creating and painting

Best Play Dough Recipe Ever!

Play is the work of a child and a nice batch of play dough is a staple in the early learning environment! Play dough lends itself to enhance the children's imagination, fine motor skills, scientific experimentation, social/emotional skills and many language opportunities. The following recipe is a no-cook recipe that contains many items already in your fridge.

While working with play dough, encourage your child to push, poke, shape, flatten and roll. Describe to your child what they are doing while they play to develop vocabulary and comprehension. The recipe below can be adapted to involve more senses by adding colour and scent (maybe even sparkles), experiment with your child to test your hypothesis. At times children will play individually with play dough but often we find in the centres that the children will interact with each other when they play dough is placed in the kitchen. They develop sharing skills, test language abilities and demonstrate their creativity as they cook up meals and baking with the play dough and pots and simply play dough supports brain development throughout the early years.

Some ideas to scent and colour the play dough recipe can be as simple as using food colouring and essential oils or adding a bit of Kool-Aid. Other ideas for a more natural colour and scent may include the juice of blueberries for the colour purple and turmeric powder for a orange/yellow. Get creative and have fun, let your imagination and your child guide you!


Play Dough Recipe

Mix

• 2 cups of flour
• 1/2 cup of salt
• 2 Tbsp cream of tartar

Mix

• 1 1/2 cups of warm water
• 2 Tbsp of vegetable oil
• 1/4 tsp of glycerine

Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Feel free to add more flour until the dough is not sticky. Children love to help add ingredients, pour, stir and mix. They feel very proud when they are able to help with these jobs and take ownership in the accomplishment!

Jada Fiissel

Jada has a Bachelor of Education, has completed her Yoga Teacher Training (300-hours) and a specialization in children’s yoga. She continues to deepen her own understanding through a dedicated practice and teaches adult and Kid’s Yoga throughout the city and incorporates yoga and the teachings in her daily family life.

Importance of Play

Young children, regardless of their age, learn best through play and exploration. Providing a variety of opportunities for them to explore starting at birth is crucial.

For example: This is a ten-month-old exploring paint. There was very little guidance from mom. The child was able to open up her senses and explore the paint with her entire body. She used her fingers, toes, tummy, knees, nose, mouth, etc. By the end of the activity she was covered in paint from head to toe and may have even tried tasting a little. She quickly realized it did not taste very good!

As a parent this type of activity may seem a bit overwhelming at first. However, starting with a small activity will make the bigger and messier exploration activities seem painless and easy.

Click here for more information on the importance of play.

Laura Bieber