How to get play-dough out of the carpet

We play with play-dough a lot, it's an activity I enjoy as well as my 2 and 4 year old. The only down side to play-dough is it can be messy. We usually just have to wipe up the table and pick up some pieces from the tile floor but occasionally it makes its way to the carpet. We have learned a few things in our efforts to remove it.

The best way to get play-dough out of the carpet is:
1-Dab up as much as you can using play-dough.
2-Allow the rest to dry, this will take a couple hours. (This is what's hard for me, I don't want to leave it.)
3-Using a flat object (spoon or knife works great) scrape the big pieces out of the carpet. 
4-Use a stiff brush and brush out the rest.
5-Vacuum up the remains.
 

Week 11: Make a VOLCANO!

We had a ton of fun this week.  As a child I always loved science experiments   One of my favorites was watching what happens when you mix baking soda and vinegar   This week we read a book and watched a YouTube clip about volcano's.  Then we used this awesome recipe to make play-dough.  

I have a really creative friend named Rachel.  We helped our children shape the play dough into a volcano.  In the middle we placed a toilet paper role with some aluminum foil tucked inside and used it to hold lots of baking soda.  When the boys were done adding the play dough to the volcano, we let them take turns pouring vinegar into the top and we all watched it erupt!  ; )

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If You Give a Moose a Muffin Theme Day

This is another book we really enjoy. We read it and then did some activities to go along with the book.

First we made some muffins. We made real old fashioned raspberry muffins using the recipe found here.

The kids really liked them!

We also made puppets, we made a mouse and a moose puppet.

I found the colored socks at the dollar store.  I sewed the whiskers on the mouse and the kids helped glue felt and buttons to the socks. If you choose to use a glue gun like we did be sure to put some cardboard in the sock to prevent the kids from gluing the sock together. 

We then drew some scenery for our puppet show. We used a cardboard box and sidewalk chalk. I didn't want to mess with paint. 

When we finished the scenery we hung it up and put on a puppet show. 

This was a pretty simple theme day and a lot of fun. The kids love their new puppets and I love that I found a great homemade muffin recipe. 

  

Fun with Play-Dough

I have mentioned before that my kids and I LOVE play-dough.  I have a 2 and 4 year old, they are entertained for hours with play-dough.  I like it because I find it to be relaxing while allowing me to spend quality time with both my kids. Below I have listed a few of our favorite play-dough tools and some activities and games we have enjoyed together. 

Looking for the perfect homemade play-dough recipe? Not long ago we did a huge play-dough experiment and found the perfect recipe, you can read all about it here. 

Things to Add to Play-Dough

Food Coloring- try adding fun neon colors or using gel or powder colorings for a more vibrant color. 

Glitter-make play-dough sparkly and fun.

Kool-aid- this works as a great food coloring and smells amazing.

Essential Oil or Extract- these make the play-dough smell good, only add a small drop.

Fun Tools

Kitchen utensils- we love to use our potato smasher, rolling pin, and forks.

Straws- cut straws into small pieces and let your child stick them into the play-dough.

Cookie cutters- these provide hours of fun.

Toys

   play-dough sculptures- have kids cover their favorite toys in play-dough.

   toy print- legos make great toy prints.

   foot prints- make foot prints using different toy animals.

Beads- let your child stick the beads in the play-dough.

Toothpicks- these are fun to connect play-dough pieces together with.

Popsicle sticks- kids will love trying to stick as many as they can in one big ball of play-dough.

Educational Activities

Play-dough letter mats- print off our free printable letter mats and put them in sheet protectors, your kids will love having fun while they review letters. 

Play-dough emotion faces- make different faces and talk about how different feelings are expressed (exp: happy, sad, angry). It's fun to add google eyes. 

Play-dough Earth- make one big green ball and have your child add strands of blue to it. Talk about the earth. 

Practice cutting- grab a plastic knife (or a popsicle stick will work if you are worried about your child cutting themselves) and cut away.

Fun with Coins- grab a penny, nickle, dime and quarter and let your child make imprints of each into the play-dough. Talk about the value of money and what we use money for.

Shapes- practice making shapes together.

Colors- quiz your child on their colors while playing together then experiment with mixing colors together. 

Numbers- Make lots of little balls and practice counting them.

Ecosystems- make different ecosystems (exp: ocean, desert, jungle, etc.)

Games

Whats your favorite?- ask your child questions like: "what's your favorite fruit, bug, animal " then have them make that object with play-dough. Don't be afraid to let your child add things to the play-dough. We added black-beans for watermelon seeds, pipe cleaners for bug antennas and eyes for animals.

Silly Hair- Cover a picture of  your child with laminate or put it in a plastic bag and have your child add hair to it. 

Play-dough I Spy- hide a bunch of small objects (like buttons or coins) in play-dough and have your child find them.

Play bakery or pretend to cook- have your child make their favorite treat. Pull out the muffin tin, cup cake wrappers, cookie sheet and cookie cutters, decorate a cake or make a pizza.

Potato head- make eyes, nose and mouth out of plastic pieces and let your child stick them in play-dough.

Tallest Tower- see who can build the tallest tower.

What are some of your favorite things to do with play-dough?