Valentines "Chocolate" Playdough

During our Valentines theme, I always love to make "chocolate" playdough!! Since chocolate is such a big part of the holiday, the children really seem to go with this and love playing with it.

It's easy to make....just follow your regular playdoug recipe and add some cocoa powder to the mix! It turns brown and smells like chocolate all in one. Just remember to remind the little ones, that it's not REALLY chocolate. Along with a variety of baking items, I also set out a few empty boxes of chocolates so that the kids can pretend to give valentines to their friends and make their own chocolates to put in. It's always so fun to see them handing out "chocolates" and to hear the socialization that goes on during this Valentines time!!

Valentines Slime

We enjoy getting MESSY in preschool! This slime always seems to be a favorite and really brings the kids together playing and exploring. I figure it's a great way to build our friendships stronger and have fun with eachother. We also talk about opposites...to me slime is an opposite word for Valentines day because slime is yucky and gross and love and friends are fun and enjoyable! To make this stuff, just mix as much elmers glue as you are going to want slime and add your food coloring. Poor in some liquid starch until it's not sticky but slimy and stir it all together. FYI - I buy the gallons of elmers glue. You can get it from Lowes or Home Depot or I'm sure order it from a school catalog.

Melting Ice

This week we are learning all about Winter and how cold it is outside!! In the messy table today we had ice cubes (it would also be fun to use large blocks of ice) and turkey basters and eye droppers. We had a hot bowl of water also so the children could drip warm water onto the ice. Watch them as the ice begins to melt. What kinds of interesting shapes begin to form as the ice melts? Does "steam" rise from the ice as the water is poured over it? Encourage the children to touch the ice and put their fingers in the holes that are formed!!

Happy Ice Playing!

Pumpkin Pie Playdough

Playdough is always a favorite of mine and around holidays and such I always like to give it a twist. For halloween we made one of my favorites.....Pumpkin Pie Playdough.

You make this just the same as usual and add pumpkin pie spice to it. The kids love the smell of it and exploring with it. With this activity I also set out halloween shaped cookie cutters, and I couldn't forget the pie tins (it's a must when the playdough smells like pie!)

Pumpkin Pie Playdough Recipe

2 cups flour

1 cup salt

2 cups water

2 tbsp oil

1 tbsp cream of tartar

pumpkin pie spice

orange food coloring

Combine all of the ingredients in a pot, stir over medium-low heat. Don't let the mixture stick to the pot. Keep stirring and cooking until the mixture looks like mashed pototes - instead of soup. Remove pot from the stove and knead when cool enough to handle.

Ghost Goo

This is always a favorite and we usually have to keep it in our classroom for a couple of days because the kids just LOVE to explore with this stuff!!

This is actually called OOBLECK (most teachers know what I'm talking about), but at halloween time I change the name to "Ghost Goo". The kids think it is soooooo cool and talk can be heard throughout the room about ghosts, goblins, ghouls, witches, and much more.

One boy asked me today, "Do ghosts really leave this behind when they visit you?" I told him that if they were real they just might, but there is really now such thing as ghosts.

So the recipe goes like this (so simple)......cornstarch......water......voila!!! Just mix equal parts of each. This substances so interesting, it hardens when you pick it up and turns to slime in your hands. It really is too fun to play with. Just be prepared to have cornstarch drippings from your messy table to the bathroom.....or keep a tub of water close by for quick rinsing. The nice thing about this stuff is that it cleans up so easily (it's just cornstarch after all). So don't freak out if it gets splattered in a few places....kids will be kids! Happy Haunting!!

Tupperware Madness

For our messy table on our sense of sight day we added LOTS of dried beans and tupperware. This was tricky and took thinking skill to match up the lid to the right piece of tupperware. The children enjoyed pouring, filling, and even started sorting the beans (I was quite excited to see this taking place, I didn't even think of it!)

One child was determined to find the lid to a particular tupperware piece. He had them all matched up (or so he thought). I watched him as he continued to figure out which lid was incorrectly placed. I love watching the wheels turn in their smart little heads. Happily, and with much excitement he finally figured it out!! Boy do I love preschoolers!!

Sweet Smelling Shaving Cream

OK, so don't you think shaving cream smells so good? I sure do!! So what a great sensory experience to add to our sense of smell day!! Not only do the kids LOVE to feel this stuff, but they get to smell it at the same time. Believe me, our classroom was super aromatic today (AAACHOO!)

We are also discovering more about the letter Aa this week, so I did some teacher guidance with the letter Aa in the shaving cream. The kids thought it was totally cool how you could make letters and pictures appear in the shaving cream. The children who know how to write their name had a grand old time with the letters in their names. It was also great practice to assist the kids who are still catching onto their name writing!

Playdough Fun

Playdough is another thing that most children are pretty familiar with. I like to start my year out with many things children are familiar with so it's an easy adjustment and they can identify easily with their surroundings. It's nice to have the children come into the classroom saying things like, "Hey, I've done this before." "Here, I'll help you, I do this at home.", etc. I set playdough out often in preschool, but I do change things each time. This time I put out many baking pieces, cookie cutouts, etc. I have also discovered that children absolutley LOVE cutting playdough with scissors. Have you ever tried it? It really is so fun and cool feeling!! Ever since I discovered this, I never set playdough out without scissors. Scissors are a very hard thing to master for young children, and playdough is a perfect way for them to practice without getting frustrated. So, cut...cut..cut!!

I've shared my playdough recipe many times on this site before, but I will share it again, because I LOVE PLAYDOUGH!!!!!!

*2 cups flour

*1 cup salt

*1 tblsp cream of tartar

*2 cups water

*1 tblsp oil

Mix these ingredients all together until it is like soup. You can add food coloring at this time or your choice of koolaid for a fun smell good playdough!!

Cook on Medium heat until it forms into playdough. Remove from pan and knead until it's nice a smooth.

Happy Playdough Playing!!

Colored Rice

Colored rice is always a favorite in the Messy Table. Rice is so small and fun to feel between your fingers. It's just such a great sensory experience that is always a must! The children expecially love to watch the rice poor, fill and twist....oh to be a child again!!

To make....

Put about 2 Tblsp alcohol and your choice of food colorings into gallon ziplock baggies. I do a different batch for each color (obviously). So if you are making 5 different colors, you'll need 5 different bags for each one.

Now put rice into the bag. The more rice you have the lighter color it will be, the less rice you have in the bag, the brighter it will be. I try and make big batches for the messy table, so I make mine on the lighter side.

Now mix and squish the bag until all of the rice pieces are coated. Once you have it mixed to your liking, lay out to dry on a tray or sheet cake pan or whatever else you have that can let the rice dry pretty flat.

Happy rice playing!!

Messy Table Moon Sand

What a better way to start out the Messy Table then with Moon Sand - this great new craze!! If you've never played with it, you simply MUST!! It's absolutely cool! It never dries, and molds incredibly good!!! Just like other sand, it's not always fun to clean up, but what fun is the messy table without a little mess??

Spring Finger Painting

With spring comes lots of color!! It's so fun to take a look around and see what colors are coming out!! What a better way to celebrate the colors of spring then with some fun and messy and colorful fingerpainting!!

To make this fingerpaint all you need is......

* 1 cup flour

* 1 cup water

* 1 tblsp liquid laundry detergent (this helps it come out easily from clothing)

* food coloring

Stir these ingredients together in a bowl until smooth. Seperate into different bowls with however many colors you are going to use and stir until mixed to your desired coloring!!

St. Patricks Day Green GAK

Slime never gets old. This is another recipe, it turns out a little slimier then the glue and starch.

Recipe:

* 16 oz. white glue

* 2 cups water (halved)

* Green food coloring

* 3 teaspoons Borax Powder

* 1 medium bowl

* 1 large bowl

In the medium bowl, combine the glue, 2 cups of water and several drops of green food coloring. Stir this constantly. In the large bowl, combine the remaining water and the Borax Powder. Stir this until the powder is dissolved. Pour the glue mixture into the Borax mixture. Stir constantly until a glob of GAK forms. Let the children squeeze, knead, aquish, and ooze the GAK between their fingers.

Messy Table Madness

We've had some fun in the messy table with colored rice. Rice is always a favorite because of the great sensory feeling the kids can experience as the rice runs through their fingers and pour them into different containers, etc. The children seem to really love that it is colored........"How did you do that Miss Chelsea??"

You can make colored rice by placing rice in a large ziplock bag and adding about 1 or 2 tblsp. rubbing alcohol and then some food coloring. Mix the rice around in the bag until they are colored evenly. Lay the wet rice out on a cookie sheet or tray to dry. WA-LA!! This is also they way you would color noodles for necklaces or whatever.

We've also had water in the messy table to go with our "firefighter" career day. It's so fun to act out being like a firefighter or policeman. We've had a lot of things going on in our classroom this last few days........I can't wait to be ____________ when I grow up!!

Sand in the Messy Table

Sand is always a great experience to have in the messy table. This sand that I have I got at an Early Childhood conference one year. It's VERY fine, and just runs right between your fingers!! If we get it wet, it is PERFECT building sand. This time we kept it dry. A great experience was had by ALL!!

The Fun of Flour!

Last week in the messy table we had FLOUR!! This is such a great sensory experience since most children are not allowed to actually PLAY in flour. Not only does it have the coolest feeling, but if you pack it in just right, it will stay in the shape of it's container!!

We also got to play with bread dough......grind some wheat......etc! It was fun to see the process that wheat goes through! The Little Red Hen book was definatley a favorite throughout the week!!

The children absolutely ADORED experiencing flour!!

Puffy Paint

On our "Milk and Dairy" day, we had a great time finger painting with Puffy Paint! I figured this paint would be fun to paint on ice cream cone and pie cutouts since it has such a great creamy texture.

Even better, this paint dries puffy and creamy!! It's a wonderful sensory experience along with exploring and creativity!

To make this paint, you just add 2 cups of shaving cream to about 1/3 cup of elmers glue. Add the color of paint or food coloring you want and enjoy!!

Sweet and Slimy!

Hmmmm.....what to do in the Messy Table this week??

SLIME - what could be a better idea? Well, nothing!!

Love can be kind of slimy!

So we mixed this together as a group in the messy table!

Equal parts Elmers Glue and Liquid Starch. We added some fun LOVEY colors!!

The students have absolutely LOVED feeling this all week!!