Guide Sheet: Toy

GUIDE SHEET: TOY

HOMEMADE PLAY DOUGH

Program 1 and 2

Ingredients:

1/2 cup salt

1 cup flour

1 cup water

food dye - optional (any color, be creative!)

Hands or a mixing spoon can be used to mix the play dough. A large bowl and a vinyl mat or newspaper to work on should be supplied, as should the pre-measured salt and flour. A paper cup should be supplied for the water. Additional items can include a child-size rolling pin for Program 1 and plastic child-safe cookie cutters for Program 2.

Supporting Your Child’s Development: Play dough appeals to most children, as it allows children to use a tactile (using their sense of touch) approach to play and learning. Creating and manipulating the dough will strengthen your child’s fingers and enhance your child’s fine motor development, essential to school readiness.

Playing with play dough will encourage your child’s imagination, as she/he pretends to make pancakes or cookies or tortillas or a food from your own country. Pretending allows your child to use representational thinking, such as imagining that a piece of play dough is a cookie. Representational thinking is the foundation of understanding that letters and numbers have meaning, and is an essential part of early literacy. Pretending also encourages your child to make up stories, which will help him/her when she/he begins to read and write.

Name and encourage child to name:

Labels: Flour, salt, dough, cookie cutters, rolling pin, placemat

Colors: Depends on the food dye used, although it is not essential for the play dough to have color added.

Numbers: ONE rolling pin, FOUR cookie cutters, make any number of pretend foods, such as cookies

Sizes: Shape the play dough to be THIN or THICK, SHORT or LONG, BIG or SMALL

Textures: SMOOTH, SQUISHY, LUMPY

Relationships: Put the rolling pin ON TOP OF the play dough. Let’s put all our pretend cookies NEXT TO each other.

Causing things to happen: When we stir the flour, salt, and water together, it turns into play dough.

Describe your actions; encourage the child to describe his/her actions:

General: You can watch me pour the flour into the bowl, and then you show me how you pour the salt into the bowl.

Matching: Let’s see if you can make two pancakes exactly the same size.

Fitting: Let’s roll enough play dough out so that the cookie cutter will fit on top and you can press down on it.

Remind child to think about what s/he does:

To get child's attention: What will happen when we mix up the flour, salt, and water together?

To make a choice: Do you want to mix the dough with a spoon or with your hand?

To have self-control: It’s not a good idea to eat the play dough because it is very salty.

To remember other experiences: Have you ever made pancakes with your Mommy or Daddy?

To do things in the right order: Roll the dough flat before using the cookie cutters.

Remember throughout the home session to:

ENCOURAGE the child to talk. PRAISE the child for doing well.

ASK the child questions. HELP the child when needed.

LISTEN to the child’s answers. RESPOND to the child’s answers.

Pretend Activities:

· Pretend to make a food your child is familiar with.

· Your child can pretend to work in a restaurant and make the food you order.

· You can use toy dishes with the play dough and have your child pretend to serve a meal.

Songs

Play-Doh Song

(To the tune of Day-O, the Banana Boat Song)

Play-Doh, Play-ay-ay-Doh

So much fun, never wanna' go home

Play, I say Play, I say Play, I say Pla-ay-ay-Doh

So much fun, never wanna' go home.

Mixing Colors

(To the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star)

Red and blue, red and blue,

Mix them and find something new.

Purple like a fresh ripe plum,

Purple like a poor sore thumb,

Red and blue, red and blue,

Mix them and find something new.