Playdough Activities 3

It's been a while since we've done any playdough activity. Then one fine day as Joseph was looking for snacks to munch in the kitchen cabinet, he discovered the playdough I kept in there. And then it's playdough time again. 

Joseph was as usual with his abstract creations and Elizabeth came up with two interesting playdough creation all by herself. 

Elizabeth's pumpkin. 

Her flower. Don't you think it looks like Calla Lily? 

Anyway, off topic here. Some updates on my children progress in school. Elizabeth doesn't cry anymore. Phew! That's my big girl. Everything's fine and dandy for now. Cross my fingers and toes.

Today morning, I went to speak with Joseph's class teacher for a while when I dropped him off at school. I accompanied him into his class and as soon as he saw his classmates, he greeted them, "Hello!" He sounded like a celebrity addressing his fans. LOL. His classmates were a bit stunned. Then I told him that I gotta go and he casually said, "Bye!" So I'm a bit baffled about his crying drama over the last few days. I asked his class teacher about it and she said that he is very ok in class. The headmistress also said that as soon as he entered the class, he would start playing with his friends. They said that it's a normal thing when they see other children cry, they will follow suit or maybe he just wants to be manja with me. Hmph! This boy is just crying in front of me when I drop him off but as soon as he enters the class, he's all good. I feel that he is just a drama king!  Maybe I should sign him up for acting or drama class next time. LOL. So another headache and mystery solved, I hope!

Have a great weekend!

Playdough activities 2

Over the last hectic weekend, we still managed to squeeze in some time for playdough activities. No matter how many reasons I gave to turn down the kids request, they still insist with the whining, tantrum..you know the works. So the playdough activity time were done in quite a hurry burry but we still managed to produce this...

On the left is my flower and on the right is Elizabeth's flower. Neat right?

Joseph's masterpiece while we were doing the flower. LOL.

The 2 top photos are supposed to be birds. Oh well, I did try my best. Hehe. The bird behind is Elizabeth's. Then we both did a caterpillar and butterfly together.

Again another of Joseph's creation as we were doing all those.

Just some playdough ideas to share. Hope you all have fun!

Playdough Activities

We haven't really gotten down seriously to play with the homemade playdough that I had made until yesterday. Here's what we did..

I started the ball rolling by doing a snail.

This is my first model after how many years not playing with plasticine when we were young.LOL. Joseph added that funny hat for the snail, eyes and nose.

Elizabeth copied my snail but her snail is larger than mine.

My cupcake is the one on the left and Elizabeth's cupcake is the one on the right. But where's Joseph's cupcake?

He didn't bother doing a cupcake because he was busy adding funny shapes on the snail. "Ta da!", he says. That snail must be from another planet. LOL.

More colours added to our homemade playdough collections! The yellow one looks like durian or not? Keke.

I'm done with making my homemade playdough already with all the colourings I had. Yay and phew! But actually once you get the hang of it, you can produce one coloured playdough within minutes. Now let the fun begin!

Homemade Playdough

Last Sunday, I did homemade playdough. My little handy helper Elizabeth helped me during the process while her brother Joseph was having his afternoon siesta. There are many resources you can find from the internet but I based my homemade playdough through this website. You can follow her steps and there's pictures for each step too. So it makes it easier to follow and understand. I would love to show step by step pictures but alas since it was my first attempt, I was too 'kan cheong' in producing my playdoughs till I didn't have the chance to snap pictures during the process.

It's surely fun to do and after a few attempts you'll get the hang of it. I wanted to do homemade playdough because it is safer than the store bought ones. Just incase, Joseph accidentally put some in his mouth, I won't scream in fear and cry my eyes out. Imagine that!

So here's what you need:

1 cup of flour

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 cup of water

1/3 cup of salt (use the fine ones, I feel that it works better)

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Food colouring (as many colours as you like)

These are some of the ingredients.

I'll try to give an easy explanation on the steps as possible although I don't have pictures to go along with.

1. Add 1 cup flour, 2 teaspoons cream of tartar and 1/3 cup salt into a saucepan over a low fire otherwise the flour will get burnt.

2. Stir it to avoid getting burnt, then quickly add in 1 cup water and 1 tablespoon vegetable oil.

3. Keep stirring. It will become lumpy but don't worry. Continue stirring but not too long. Add a bit of food colouring of your choice. 1 drop will produce a lighter colour. Few drops will produce a darker colour.

4.Stir the colour in and once the dough starts getting thicker and dry, switch off the fire.

5. Take it out from the saucepan and place the dough on a wax paper. Wait for it to cool.

6. Once it's cooled, you can knead the playdough until you're satisfied with the consistency and you get rid of the lumps.

It's easier to work on the wax paper. So when you're kneading it doesn't stick everywhere. But don't worry, once it's cooled, the playdough is not that sticky and won't stick on your hands. If it sticks on your hands while kneading, then you'll know it's not successful.

That's it. I managed to do 3 colours so far. I still have green and red to do. Then the kids can start having fun with it.

Sorry for the blurry picture. This is orange coloured playdough.

Store them separately in a ziploc bag. This is pink coloured playdough.

This is blue coloured playdough.

Happy weekend everyone!