Texture Pressing

Yesterday we had so much fun with Play-Doh! We explored different textures by pressing objects into the Play-Doh and then feeling both the object and the imprint in the Play-Doh. They were very interested in the different textures that were produced and went through about twenty different play foods before they started collecting some of their dinosaurs and some dried pasta to see what kind of imprints they made too.

We started out rolling the Play-Doh into balls and flattening them out. We gave Munchkin a few minutes to shred Play-Doh until it was out of his system :)

Then I brought out a bowl of plastic play food. I showed them how to do the first one (kept it simple and rolled a corn on the cob and showed them the texture it made). After that they knew exactly what to do. Bean grabbed a garlic and got right to it!

Munchkin liked the onions best, because he could roll them across the Play-Doh and it would create little lines.

They really liked pressing veggies directly into the Play-Doh so that they could look at both and compare them.

Some of them I would press or roll the food and then add the food back to the bowl and ask them if they could find the food that made the print. It was interesting and very engaging for Bean, who loves activities like this. She had a lot of fun and was very good at this!  :)

Bean recognized this pressing and thought it was roses. She was surprised to see it was made by a cupcake! :)

For some of the patterns, she pointed out the shapes they made. I was very excited that she could recognize them in the Play-Doh, since we usually use blocks and foam for our shape activities.

Exploring the different foods and feeling the bumps and grooves.

Pressing peas!

And chips!

Munchkin always tries to nibble on the chips to see if they are real.

Bean asking him, "Why?" Her favourite new word. It has begun. :)

After almost two hours playing with the play foods, I switched them out and let them use dried pasta. The bow-ties made lovely designs.

Rolled penne. 

Bean made a pumpkin. I showed her how to make lines on the left side and she did the lines on the right side. When she was done she stuck in the bow-tie and gave it a stem. Very cute! :)

Then we used penne to make animal tracks! I will have to remember this trick in the future when we do more activities involving animals and the tracks they make. The penne was perfect for deer, horses and other animals who have hooves.

Different amounts of pressure and angles produced different tracks. We loved them all!

Bean was very interested in making lines after she made the pumpkin, so she used the bow-tie pasta again to make these beauties. After that they brought over their dinosaurs because I pointed out that the middle row looked like spikes.

This little guy made tons of awesome prints. Bean put him on his side and rolled him. It was amazing to see how many lovely textures the dinosaurs made!

The next time we do this we will use letters and numbers to practice recognition and reading. :)

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