:: first experience with play-dough ::

Play-dough is wonderful for children. It's mushy and malleable. It strengthens little fingers. It provides a sensory experience that is both calming and engaging.

I make play-dough every week in my pre-k classroom. It's a great science experiment, figuring out how much water, oil, and flour to add to make it just the right consistency. And once we get it right, we sing a song while we manipulate the dough. The children pick the verb and we act it out.

"insert verb" (repeat three times) the dough...

I sing the song in the video with J. He expressed interest in poking the dough so I sang (and please excuse my  voice):

Poke, poke, poke the dough
Poke poke, poke, the dough
poke, poke, poke, the dough
poke poke poke the dough dough dough

I think we spent a good 20 minutes in class once coming up with different verbs (poke, pull, squish, pinch, rip, put it back together, twist, turn, etc). From Bev Bos I learned that it is important for children to be able to manipulate songs and make them their own. Great for creativity. And what is creativity if not critical thinking?

Here is the video of J with his play dough (please excuse my dirty child, I swear I bathe him every night but he sure plays hard during the day):

:: BOOM! Following the interests of a toddler ::

J is learning how to talk. He can say Mama, Dada, baba, hi, bye, thank you (ake ooh), along with a few baby signs. But his favorite word is BOOM! Grandma taught him that word, and their favorite game is to throw things down and say BOOM! Too cute.

I noticed he particularly likes for things to go BOOM! in the water, I assume because of the satisfying splash that it makes. So I set up some containers with both natural materials and recyclables on a little table next to a tub of water for this gravity/cause & effect experiment. 

Now keep in mind that if you make a lesson plan for a toddler, it won't go exactly as you planned, if it even goes at all. Please don't get stressed out over it or force your baby to participate in something they don't want to. Learning should be fun for both of you and should have an organic feel.

For example, I didn't anticipate that he would get in the water (he hadn't expressed interest in it all week). He also puts the whole container of items in the water.

A brief video clip of our BOOM! activity in action:




I think for our next activity we will BOOM! from different heights and on different surfaces.