Edible Playdough?

Edible Playdough: how can this be real?? I am always curious when I see these recipes pop up. I am usually skeptical because the recipe has disgusting ingredients and no one would ever eat it or the "dough" it makes is nowhere close to an actual playdough consistency. The little experiment V and I did last week was the latter. She absolutely loved eating it but it was so sticky and un-playdough-like (even when I added 3x as much powdered sugar and cornstarch that the recipe called for). This did not prevent her from enjoying the experience!

What is this Mom???

We started with these ingredients and Curious Miss V was SO curious about the measuring cups and REALLY wanted to help pour everything in. The vegetable oil was quite scary there for a moment!

What could possibly go wrong here, Mom?

white cake mix

corn starch 

She dumped the sprinkles in at the end so fast I barely got a picture. Yes; they ended up all over the kitchen :) We stirred and stirred and put some dough in cupcake liners but it was too heavy and sticky and did not come back out easily. Would not use the paper ones if I did this again. 

As per usual with new sensory things, V was curious and a bit concerned with the amount of sticky factor on her hands. 

It was a bit easier to handle (and see against the countertop!) on a cutting board and in her own bowl. And if you give V a bowl, she will want a spoon...If You Give a Mouse a Cookie anyone?

No crazy kitchen experiment with Mom would be complete without a taste test!

MMM not bad Mom...

The other time I tried edible playdough was in my classroom in December when I was doing a Gingerbread Man unit. The recipe had ginger and nutmeg and smelled like the holidays. It was even stickier than this current recipe and I literally had to help 1st graders scrape it off their hands. A few complained that it actually hurt/stung their hands: no "best teacher" awards for me that day! Thankfully, V and I enjoyed this experience more although I don't think I would make it again. Live and learn!

Shaking Butter

I have always loved Laura Ingalls Wilder and when I saw the idea of making butter in the Toddler Activity Book it instantly reminded me of that! Add that to the fact that I recently inherited my Dad's old bread machine and had a hankering for some thick, white, bread-machine bread with butter and we got today's activity! Anything that shakes and makes noise Miss V loves so I got her set up with a plastic container and a marble to practice shaking.

The marble helps the butter to "churn" while shaking

Does this come out? If so maybe I'll put it in my mouth and give Mom a heart attack...

After some good shaking-the-marble fun I confiscated the container and added 1 cup of whipping cream and then taped the lid on extra tight.

Dad showed V how to shake it again and she was not at all ready for that; first order of business was seeing if she could get the tape off...

She was also a bit annoyed that she didn't get any of what she thought was "milk" that was poured in this container...

Once she gave up on the tape she forcefully shook the container for about 3.4 seconds and then handed it to Mom who continued shaking for approximately 15 more minutes (where did Dad disappear to??) until it thickened up a bit and we got the finished buttery product. 

This seems like a lot of work...

Bread please! 

It looked like cool whip and was very creamy; pretty different than the usual butter from the tub :)  It also didn't have much of a taste and I immediately started thinking of flavors or things to add next time like cinnamon or honey or garlic depending on what it is going on. I'm hungry for more bread!! 

V enjoyed it...mostly. She loves ketchup all of a sudden so anything sauce-like she wants to lick off food which is kinda gross! She tried it with ranch dressing on a piece of lettuce a few days ago and the butter I think reminded her of yogurt. She licked some of it off and ate some of the bread that didn't have any butter. She also doesn't really like bread so I was surprised she even ate any of that! You can't be a Becker without enjoying some bread/carbs with every meal!

The classic Cheerio

Cheerios are the most classic breakfast cereal I can think of (first introduced in 1941!). V agrees and gobbles them up in the car, on the couch during story time and even in her yogurt.  Grandma found a really fun board book that has missing circle, cheerio-shaped spaces for little fingers to practice matching cheerio pieces. V tends to eat more than match the little O's but knowing her love of eating this is not surprising. 

Focused...

Eating and flirting with Dad

V knows that Grandma is a sucker and will give her more cheerios (or waffles right off of her plate during her last visit!) and she loves to read the book with her most of all!

Lastly, I saw an idea on Pinterest to give toddlers Cheerios in yogurt. Using milk is way too big of a mess. Miss V has gotten so good at using a spoon because of this trick. She concentrates on getting the cheerios on her spoon and they stay pretty well because the yogurt is thick enough. This combo is probably in her top 3 of favorite snacks! I am thinking of trying some edible play dough in the near future...wish us luck and watch for what I'm sure will be some funny pictures!

"Scratchy Face"

Toddler Activity Book #4= Yarn and Sandpaper

Since V likes sensory play I thought this would be a good one to try. Also, she likes the book Pat the Bunny which has a page with a Daddy and a "scratchy face" to feel that is made out of sandpaper. She always feels it and then says "Dada!" and has to go find him wherever he is in the house to pat his cheeks and feel the stubble :)

We assembled materials and as you can see, this was part of the fun for Miss V. She probably would have been content just playing with the yarn or the sandpaper by themselves!

I should mention that we had absolutely no yarn in the house and I sent Kyle into Joann's to get some while I did another quick errand and this crazy multi-color ball is what he picked!

I just stapled the corners of sandpaper to a poster board and taped the middle corners down.

I cut some of the yarn into long pieces and "stuck" them to the sandpaper. Then V just took them off and put them back on...and off and on 100 zillion times!

We had to get some name writing practice in of course :)

Is that my name???

I don't think we actually need that O Mom

She likes carrying yarn pieces around the house and doesn't always use the sandpaper with it but all in all I think it was some good sensory exposure!

Rainbow Noodles

March is all about spring, bright colors/rainbows and of course that sneaky little leprachaun who causes chaos for teachers everywhere. I subscribe to a few email lists of other bloggers and thus get some pretty cool crafty ideas in my inbox every week. Rainbow noodles: commence! 

Not one to heed the advice of my husband, I cooked the whole box of noodles. You will see...it made the project a little extreme.

Then we started adding food coloring and mixing. V was curious, of course.

Dinner anyone?

The towel was essential to keep sticky pasta off the floor. V was ready to squish

Cautious at first...

Let's just empty this whole bin

How high can this go?

The one hand method was just too slow and she really did like how it felt I think. Curious, but enjoyable. She barely even looked up as you can see from the pictures.

Hmmm

We had to throw in a grownup size spoon and "fork" too since she is obsessed with using them now.

And a sensory project with the ever curious Miss V would not be complete without a little taste test.

All in all, it was a fun, messy, squishy March project that I enjoyed a lot more than a room full of crazy kiddos post leprechaun visit LOL

Her attempt at cleaning up

Aftermath 

Here is the link to the original idea. Warning: the pasta really started to smell afterwards and we threw it out pretty quickly!