We Are Going to Make Some Play Dough!

First, let me just say that we have had a fabulous start to our new school year!  We have a class full of little personalities and I don't want to jinx us but I think we have a pretty well behaved group.  We have already moved some little chatty Cathys away from each other.  So, hopefully we will start our new week with even better behavior.  AND, our behavior clip chart is working BEAUTIFULLY!!  Our kinders love wearing the stickers Tanya made from labels when they move to blue or purple. I am going to share with all of you this week.  Now, onto the topic of this post.  During the next few weeks, we will using play dough in our first math and literacy stations.  I have found some great activities out in blog world dealing with using play dough to make shapes, letters, numbers, etc.  I know our students are going to love it!  I spent part of this afternoon making home made play dough to use in the stations.   Here is a picture of how it turned out:

I made a double batch of the green and the blue. I am so pleased with how it turned out!   We are going to make another batch of yellow and another batch of red with our students as our first cooking activity of the year.  This is the recipe I used:

1 cup plain flour

1/2 cup salt

2 tsp. cream of tartar

1 cup water

1 tsp oil

food coloring

Mix all ingredients together with a fork until the mixture is smooth and one solid color.  Pour the mixture into a pan and bring to a boil over medium heat.  Stir until smooth and until play dough bunches up to form a ball.  Take it out of the pan and allow the play dough to cool.  Knead for a few minutes and store in an airtight container.

I got the recipe from http://www.playdoughrecipe.org.  This website has recipes for all kinds of play dough!  This is just the traditional recipe.  

Looking forward to this week of Teacher Week 2011!!  =)