Cloud Dough Pretend Play {Raspberry Italian Cream Sodas}



Welcome back to another round of sensory dough with 12 Months of Sensory Dough!

Today, I want to talk about using sensory dough to provide "experiences."

During my 10 Days of Preschool,  I shared the following in my post on Experiences:
If I could only tell you one thing about homeschooling preschoolers, I would tell you this:

Create a rich learning environment for preschoolers by providing daily experiences.

Daily experiences, along with language development, help little ones understand the world around them.

I think this applies quite nicely to sensory experiences!

Key ideas from my post:

  • Let your preschooler make discoveries through sensory play.

  • Give them language to describe their discoveries.

  • Help them make sense of the information they collect!

Bo has a large number of words that he understands but cannot say, so it is important for me to use words that are easy to say in this process.

This was my focus heading into our sensory play today... making "Raspberry Italian Cream Sodas!"



We used flour and baby oil to make our "cloud dough" and colored it using red acrylic paint. (Don't do this! It irritated my son's hands and left them chapped for several weeks). I left some white for the "cream."

I served it up with a plastic pitcher and restaurant style cups (from the dollar store). I wanted fountain soda glasses and long milkshake spoons, but didn't want to spend the money. :D (I spent $5 total on this activity.)



I'll let the photos tell the story, but both Bo and Elli had fun making their sodas and playing with the cloud dough.
              








While it was more fun making foam dough, it was the opposite with cloud dough! Bo loved this. He played and played and played. Longer than I expected or even desired, haha! I think it's because cloud dough is not sticky, but rather soft and silky, and brushes easily off his hands. He enjoyed it so much that I was ready to clean up and be done long before he was. And cleaning up was just as much fun - he took his time and very carefully put all the cloud dough back into the pitcher.  Once he got most of it into the pitcher, I just pulled up each corner of the red plastic table cover and removed it to reveal a clean table! :)

But, I had a reason for wanting to clean up! I had a follow up activity planned ~ making REAL Raspberry Italian Cream Sodas!

Do you have a cloud dough activity that you’d like to share? Read the guidelines for linking up here, and link up!

I'll be linking up this post, along with our Pretend Root Beer Floats (a smelly good sensory experience!), and our Pretend Cupcake Play for the book If You Give a Cat a Cupcake.

We’ll see you next month for Edible Play Dough!

15 comments

  1. […] Enter Truvia and real raspberries! I made this for my kiddos because they take after me! and we had just made pretend sodas for a sensory play activity. But, after making pretend “Root Beer Floats,“ I wanted the real thing, so we were […]

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  2. HOW AMAZING! I love, love, love that color! Thank you so much for being part of this series with me. I am amazed each month by your pictures, your ideas, your creativity and all the learning involved!

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  3. Oh my goodness! This is so cute! My kids love cloud dough as well. I spread an old shower curtain out on the floor and let them play on that. :) I'll have to try this one!

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  4. Oh my goodness, SO MUCH FUN!! I get gitty every month seeing your amazing photos and how happy your children are! You definitely created that "experience" you talked about in your post. I adore you! :)

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  5. So cool! I love Elli's expression when she gets the dough out of the glass in the glass shape... and that smile from Bo, priceless. I am inspired to make some cloud dough for Aarya! Will be doing this in the coming days, thanks for the inspiration.

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  6. Looks like you had lots of good messy fun. I need to get back into making doughs with the little ones.

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  7. Thank you, Dayna! I'm really enjoying this series! So thankful for the motivation to do this and being a part of this awesome group of bloggers!

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  8. A shower curtain on the floor is a great idea, Dusty! Do you use a fabric or plastic one? (I like the idea of being able to throw a fabric one in the washing machine!). I used a dollar store plastic one so I could throw it away, but I usually use them more than once. :) Thanks for stopping by!

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  9. Aw, thanks Rachel! The feeling is quite mutual! Your photos and ideas are amazing. I'm so happy to have "met" you!

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  10. I hope you do! I am encouraged by the motivation with this challenge! :)

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  11. I use a fabric curtain. When they are done, I gather it up and shake it off outside and then wash it! Plastic ones are good for paint if you don't want to possibly deal with stains.

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  12. Messy fun! We enjoyed some cloud activities this week ourselves. SWEET concept with making cream sodas.

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  13. […] 9th: Cloud Dough Pretend Play followed by {Trim & Healthy} Raspberry Italian Cream […]

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