Daycare Centers - Creativity Fun, Play Dough & Finger Paint
When you have opened the doors of your day care facility, you will be concentrating on making sure that your day care kids have fun and learn at the same time. Kids are easy to stimulate but also hard to keep up with. Their attention spans are naturally short in order to give them as much time as possible to explore the world around them. To maximize the focus they have on an activity, make sure that the activity is one that lets them utilize two or more of their senses.
Play dough, for example, holds about 15 or 20 minutes of crafting different shapes. In preparing this activity, you stimulate a child’s vision and sense of touch. Aside from developing hand-eye coordination needed o mold the play dough into a particular shape, this activity also strengthens both gross and fine motor skills.
Although, you can buy kids’ play dough at almost any store, a more fun activity would be to make your own play dough with your day care center wards. Aside from encouraging the young ones to create their own toys with your help, you can actually save money since you would not be buying commercial play dough again and again.
Play dough can be made by using heating or not. Here are some recipes for play dough.
To cook:
You will need to:
1. Prepare 2 cups of flour, two cups of warm water, a cup of salt, two tablespoons of vegetable oil and a tablespoon of cream of tartar for elasticity.
2. Have food coloring to make it more attractive to your day care children.
3. Mix all the ingredients, except for the food coloring, you have and stir over low heat.
4. Wait until the consistency of the mixture thickens and does not stick to the sides of the pot.
5. Stir constantly until the dough settles on the center of the pot.
6. Knead the dough on a flat surface and on wax paper and put in the food coloring. Keep on folding the dough over and over until the color spreads evenly throughout.
7. Keep the play dough in an airtight container before and after your day care children play with it.
8. Knead in a bit of warm water when the play dough starts hardening.
9. Make another batch once the dough does not soften with water anymore.
10. This play dough is safe even if ingested but it does not mean you can leave the toddlers alone when they are playing with it.
No cook:
You will need to:
1. Mix three cups of flour, one third of a cup of salt. Two tablespoons vegetable oil, one cup of water and about seven drops of food coloring.
2. Knead and it is ready!
3. This type does not last as long as the other recipe that needs cooking but, hey, its relatively easier to do.
Play dough is one of the most flexible play stuff your kids can encounter. Just be careful not to let the kids put play dough in their ears, nose, mouth ( they might coke on a big piece) and eyes.
More info: How to start a daycare
