I've seen recipes for homemade playdough for years and always passed on them because, well, it looks messy. This week I had a free morning, some cream of tartar from a different recipe, and decided to go for it. It wasn't as messy as I expected and the kids all had a blast.
Round up your favorite recipe (there are so many to pick from) and some little helpers, and let's have fun learning language while we bake a playdough cake!
Remember to keep your sentences grammatically correct but simplified, go slow and really stress the important words.
I let my kids (even the 3-year-old!) help with the measuring of ingredients. I like to use smaller measuring units than the recipe calls for (e.g. using 1/2 c to measure 2 cups) so we had lots of time to practice "scoop" and "pour". We talked about safety ("ouch, it's hot!") when turning on the heat, and then practiced stirring "around and around".
When the dough had formed and cooled enough to handle, we learned how to knead in color (fold and push), adding only a couple of drops at a time to control the color and to give everyone a chance to request more colors. When we had all of the colors just the way we wanted, we added in some sprinkles, just to be extra fancy.
Finally, it was time to "bake" our cake. We made and squashed balls (roll and pat) and stacked our layers. After a quick trip to the toy room kitchenette (open the oven, put the cake in, close the oven), we added a candle for effect and let our favorite stuffies dig in.
I hope you enjoy making the pretend cakes as much as we did. As always, remember to have FUN!
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