Littles Learnng Link Up: Homemade Playdough

Welcome to Littles Learning Link Up.

 Each month you will find:

• A seasonal round-up (at the beginning of the month)
• A guest post featuring crafts, activities, tips, snack ideas or other early childhood topics. (toward the end of the month)
• Posts where I share what I have been up to with my preschoolers and/or early elementary children.

Each week, I will host a link up, where you can share either what you have been up to recently, or old posts that may go with the theme.  Feel free to link up more than one post.

Each week I will continue to feature a couple of posts from those that have been linked up. 

I hope you will continue to share your wonderful posts, and I hope you will find something new to try with your child.

It would be great for everyone to stop by and visit the other linked up posts as well. Check them out, leave some comments, pin those that interest you. Let's make this a real party and socialize with each other.

Homemade Playdough

Since the older girls were preschool age, we have been making our own playdough. Not only do I not have to worry about harmful ingredients that might be in store-bought playdough, but making the playdough is a great learning experience for the children. I tend to start the year with a new batch of playdough and then we make some at least a couple more times during the year.

We use the recipe found in the book, "Slow and Steady Get Me Ready" by June R. Oberlander. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 cup of flour

1 Tbs vegetable oil

1 cup water

1/2 cup salt

2 tsp cream of tartar

Food coloring

I like to have Tabitha or Amelia read the recipe.

Then we add the ingredients. This recipe is quite simple. Just pour all the ingredients in a pan.

Then stir while cooking over medium heat until it forms a ball.

We were going for a brown color as we making Viking Ships to go with our My Father's World Adventures lessons on Vikings. 

Here is a look at what the playdough looks like once the ball has formed. You have to make sure not to cook it too long, or it will dry out faster.

(This picture is actually from the past, but I didn't take any pictures of it at this stage this time.)

Once a ball forms, mommy takes over for a while, because we have to knead the dough, and it is very hot at first. As soon as it cools down sufficiently, I have the children help knead and play with the dough.

I think we succeeded in getting a decent color. Though it didn't look quite right at first, the more we played with it, the more the brown color came out. 

Now onto:

Littles Learning Link Up Features

On my last Littles Learning Link Up post, there were 11 wonderful posts linked up. I will be picking one randomly selected post to share, plus the top clicked-on posts.  

This week's randomly selected post is:

There's Just One Mommy shared Apple-Themed Skip Counting Activity.

The following posts tied for the most clicks:

Carla from Preschool Powol Packets shared Edible Bubble Science With Apples.

Sarah from How Wee Learn shared A Year Full of Name Puzzles.

I would love to have you join in this week! What sort of activities do you do with your young children? Do you have some favorite activities you would like to share? I invite you to link up below. I will be pinning posts on my Toddler Ideas, Preschool, or other relevant board, and I would love to feature some of the activities each week from what is linked up.

Please know I may share a picture from your post and link back to it, along with sharing how we used your idea in our school time. By linking up you are giving me permission to use a picture from your post. I will ALWAYS give credit and link back. Additionally, if you choose to try out any of the ideas with your child, please make sure you give credit where credit is due.

Linky will be open through Sunday night, to give me time to check out all the posts and get the Features organized. Please take the time to visit some of the other wonderful posts linked up.

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An InLinkz Link-up