CategoriesActivities Educationalby

Unlocking Creativity: The Benefits of Open-Ended Play and Fun Play Dough Activities for Your Little Ones

As parents, we all want the best for our children, especially when it comes to their development and creativity. One powerful way to foster these qualities is through open-ended play. This type of play allows children to explore, experiment, and express themselves in ways that structured activities simply cannot. 

What is Open-Ended Play?

Open-ended play refers to activities that have no specific goal or predetermined outcome. This type of play encourages children to use their imagination, creativity, and problem-solving skills. Instead of following strict rules, kids are free to create their own narratives and explore their ideas. Whether they are building, role-playing, or experimenting, open-ended play allows for endless possibilities. 

Benefits of Open-Ended Play

  1. Fosters Creativity: Children learn to think outside the box and develop their unique ideas, enhancing their creative thinking skills.
  2. Encourages Critical Thinking: As kids make decisions and solve problems during play, they strengthen their cognitive skills and gain confidence in their abilities.
  3. Builds Social Skills: When children engage in open-ended play with peers or siblings, they learn to communicate, collaborate, and negotiate, which are vital skills for social interaction.
  4. Supports Emotional Development: This type of play allows children to express their feelings and work through emotions in a safe environment.
  5. Enhances Fine Motor Skills: Manipulating materials in open-ended play, like play dough, strengthens hand muscles and improves coordination.

Fun Play Dough Activities for Open-Ended Play

Play dough is a versatile and engaging material that lends itself perfectly to open-ended play. Here are some creative activities you can do at home with your little ones:

  1. Nature Exploration

Take a walk outside and collect leaves, twigs, and small stones. When you return home, encourage your child to use the play dough to create their own natural scene. They can make trees, flowers, or even animals, combining their findings with their imagination! 

  1. Storytelling Sculptures

Invite your child to create characters or settings from their favorite story using play dough. Once they’ve made their figures, encourage them to tell the story using their creations. This not only nurtures creativity but also enhances their storytelling skills.

  1. Sensory Play with Textures

Mix different textures into your play dough experience! Add sand, rice, or fabric scraps to the dough. As your child plays, discuss how the textures feel and how they can be used in their creations. This activity stimulates their senses while promoting creativity. 

  1. Play Dough Café

Set up a pretend café where your child can create their own play dough dishes. They can make pizzas, cakes, or anything their imagination desires. Use cookie cutters and tools to shape the food, and encourage role-play by pretending to serve customers! 

  1. Imaginative Building

Challenge your child to build a structure, whether it’s a castle, a bridge, or a spaceship, using only play dough. This activity encourages spatial awareness and critical thinking as they figure out how to support their creations. 

  1. Emotion Faces

Use play dough to make different facial expressions. Ask your child to create faces that represent various emotions—happy, sad, angry, surprised. Discuss these emotions and how they might feel in different situations, fostering emotional intelligence.

Final Thoughts

Open-ended play, especially through materials like play dough, offers your child invaluable opportunities for growth and exploration. By incorporating these activities into your routine, you’ll not only engage your little ones but also help them develop crucial skills that will serve them well in the future. So roll out that play dough, and watch as your child’s creativity flourishes!

Happy playing!

All images lovingly captured by @natasha.murnane

 

CategoriesReal Storiesby

Oh no! My kid eats play dough!

We know, we know, it smells so DELICIOUS we want to eat it too, but no matter how many times we say “nooooo!”, they just can’t help it!

This is one of the reasons we created Dough Animal, using the same ingredients you’d use to bake a cake, just with different quantities, therefore if they can eat cake, they should be able to eat play dough, right? Well not exactly, and we will tell you why in the next section.

So, what is play dough made of?

We can’t vouch for all play dough, and we are definitely not talking about shop bought play-doh, but we are proudly talking about all the dough that we make here at Dough Animal.

While the well known Hasbro Play Doh brand uses ingredients that are proprietary, it has been noted by Wikipedia that the ingredients include water, salt, flour, a retrogradation inhibitor, lubricant, surfactant, preservative, hardener, humectant, fragrance and colour. Phew, that was a mouthful – these are definitely not ingredients you want in your child’s mouth!

Knowing that all things do go into the mouth at this age of exploration and development, we have created a product that is taste-safe. Now that doesn’t mean edible! 

We make our play dough with shop bought all purpose flour (allergens: gluten/wheat), shop bought table salt, water, oil (seed/sunflower/canola/olive), cream of tartar, a natural and organic edible preservative, food colouring, and flavour, that’s only 7 ingredients, and we are familiar with them all!

Why is it not edible? We use a high volume of salt as a natural preservative, which is not advisable to ingest, however not harmful should your little one have a nibble. It also means that if they do put the dough in their mouth* they are highly likely to spit it out due to the salty taste.

*Should your little one eat a lot of play dough or be allergic or have a food intolerance to one of the ingredients, contact your emergency department or GP urgently.

Why exploring senses is beneficial for development

Sensory play is crucial for children’s development, as it engages their senses – sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell – in meaningful ways that promote cognitive, emotional, and physical growth. By exploring different textures, colours, sounds, and smells, children enhance their ability to process sensory information, which is essential for brain development. This type of play also supports fine and gross motor skills, language development, and problem-solving abilities. Moreover, sensory activities can be particularly beneficial for children with sensory processing disorders, providing them with opportunities to integrate and respond to sensory input in a controlled environment. Overall, sensory play fosters creativity, curiosity, and a deeper understanding of the world, laying a foundation for lifelong learning.

How to properly and safely store your play dough

We recommend storing your play dough in the container it arrives in, this is to ensure that it is long lasting. Play with it regularly so that it can be kneaded often by little hands. And in a cool, dry spot out of direct sunlight or heaters. We don’t recommend keeping it in the fridge or in any areas that are too cold as this can cause crystallisation. An area too hot can make the pot sweat and cause condensation which could cause mould.

If your little one is prone to eating their play dough, keep out of reach until you’re able to supervise!

So, at the end of the day, if your kid eats play dough, it’s not the end of the world! But make sure you supervise their play, they aren’t allergic to any of the ingredients, and they don’t eat too much! Also, make sure it’s Dough Animal!

Photos are kindly gifted by Dusk Until Dawn

CategoriesNewsby

Dough Animal visits Barnes Fair London

We have been buzzing to do another fair since the Barnes Fair that we attended in 2022 but to be honest, life has just been busy and efforts into finding the perfect fairs to attend have been minimal, however we couldn’t miss this years Barnes Fair, with over 500 stalls and approx 12,000 visitors, we made sure to be ready for you.

Following on from our feedback last time, we decided to keep it simple and only make mini kits and single dough pots for this fair, along with some play tools and a very new and very limited product, play tote bags and “tiny humans” zip up bags which will now be on our UK website very soon!

The fair was a huge hit, with many wonderful parents, grandparents and gifters popping in to learn more about our naturally made play dough and comment on the softness and delicious scent coming from the play table we had out front where little testers got to play.

The play table is ultimately the biggest hit, with the fair catering for families, the majority of the things to do are for older kids, and many of the stalls had products for babies or adults but there was definitely a gap in the toddler category and we were happy to fill it.

We unfortunately had one MAJOR hiccup out of our control but we sorted it within an hour and it was all systems go. Want to know what it was? Keep on reading to find out at the bottom of this post!

Our colourful dough pots were a huge hit, from parents of 1-4 year olds all the way up to pre-teens buying pots for themselves and their younger siblings. We even had workers at a neurological care facility interested in the stampers and play dough pots for their residents and a dad that was surprisingly (to himself) VERY into the play dough – we of course are not at all surprised as we love a little play ourselves, a great way to switch off, be mindful and relax.

Okay so if there’s something I have to absolutely rave about, it’s our play area. NOW this was my husbands fantastic idea and he is totally making sure I remember that, so now it’s here in writing, but it is such a huge hit.

Children are drawn to it and throughout the day I think we had over 100 little ones (and not-so-young-ones) sit and play. 

It’s where parents got to see if their children had an interest in play dough, where parents got to test it for themselves. It’s where children got to have a place to sit and play, the only place like it in the whole fair. And where parents got to have a little break while their children were entertained.

Families spent a good 20 minutes at a time at the stall while their kids played with the play dough at the play table, and this gave them the time to really get to know us and our products. 

Our mini kits were on sale too, and were bought by loads of families and grandparents for gifting, in fact the one mum was on her way to a birthday party that afternoon and was happy to have found the most perfect unique gift.

We created something new for the fair and that was our mini tote bags, which were surprisingly also a huge hit for gifting, but also really loved by all the little ones passing by that wanted a bag like mummy. As well as our zip pouches made from organic cotton with “the tiny human’s stuff” slogan. These will be on the UK website soon for purchase but we only have a limited amount available.

And as a little thank you to everyone who attended our stall, we had printed sheets from our play ideas pack as a favour. If you didn’t manage to get one of these, or you want more, you can buy the full downloadable Fun Play Cards pack here.

Now...for the hiccup

Now that I’ve raved about how fantastic the fair was, this seems like it wasn’t such a big deal anymore, but dare I tell you that I was honestly on the verge of tears and my heart had completely dropped.

An hour or so into the fair my card reader just wouldn’t connect (we were a card only stall) and eventually it stopped connecting at all. I lost all signal on my phone which the card reader was working off, and I had no way of contacting my husband who potentially had a solution for me.

Luckily we live locally and my poor husband was up and down all day, but I had to wait for him to come back before I could send him back home to fetch our external wifi router (which luckily we had) he eventually made his way back to the market only to go all the way back home and back again. 

We later learned that the cell tower had gone down in the area and our network was affected, but the wifi router completely saved the day and gave us a good 6 more hours with the fastest connection and breezy sales. Packing this in every time from now on!

My husband was a total hero and even headed up the stall to give me a chance to do some market shopping myself. He has since confessed that he actually loved it! I think we will be taking shifts from now on. Do you think I could get him to do my online sales too? 

CategoriesActivities Educationalby

Let’s learn through play – fine motor skills edition

Looking for some fun activities to do with your little ones this week that are not only fun but actually have a huge developmental impact too?

Well we have some amazing activities in store for you, they are created by an Occupational Therapist and Early Years/Foundation Phase Teacher Bellala and have been put in practice in their therapy and classrooms as well as in our homes, the little ones just love them!

The idea of this blog post is to help you provide the child with verbal and visual cues to assist with ideation.  Ideation forms part of the planning process and this is important as it is the first step of coming up with a plan.  By asking certain questions or by placing equipment strategically, this can assist the child to further their plans independently.  If you find that the child struggles with following an instruction, guide them by providing the first step in the process only to determine whether they can continue planning independently. If the instructions are too easy for the child to do, add additional instructions which will make the activity more of a challenge.  

For all of these tasks you will need the following items to start:
– a Dough Animal play kit (if you don’t have a play kit you can also just use a pot of play dough)
– small items from around the house/garden – don’t worry you’ll be collecting these within the activity.

This week’s activities have a focus on fine motor skills, the tactile system, bilateral coordination, letter formation and spatial skills.

1. Hide & Seek

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You can start this activity off by doing a little treasure hunt either outside in the garden, around the house, in the toy box or you can pre select a number of small objects for this task. Keep these objects small, giving the child this extra task of size is great for spatial skills awareness.

The idea is to hide objects in the play dough and ask the child to find them using only their sense of touch, working on their tactile system.

If you have number of different objects, you can add another task on top of this by having them close their eyes when feeling for the objects and to guess which object they are holding, before opening their eyes to see if they are correct.

It’s so much fun that you’ll be covering and uncovering objects all day.

2. Learning About Pressure

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For this activity you’ll need one of our cookie cutters. Our cookie cutters are not only great for play dough fun but you can also use them for creating shapes in other craft projects, and even for baking biscuits.

So you’ll ask the child to take the cutter and press it down using two hands. They’ll practice pressing down hard and pressing softly with the cutter and then you’ll discuss what happens with light versus hard pressure.

Does light pressure cut right through the play dough?

Does hard pressure make a new shape in the play dough?

If you don’t have a cookie cutter, you can also use your dough pot or lid with the hollow side facing down.

3. Fun Way to Spell

 

Find a small object with a blunt point for this next one. Our favourite is a stick from the garden or some small stones.

Use the small object to indent on the play dough to practice the alphabet from A-Z. You can do this by placing small objects like stones in the letter formation or by using a sharper object like a stick to indent in thee play dough. Practice saying the letters out loud as you do this activity.

You can then move on to spelling out their name, you can help by doing your own play dough indentation or by writing with a marker on paper.

 

4. Memory Game


If you kept your small objects from the first activity, you can use them for this activity, if not, then it’s time for another fun treasure hunt, yay!

Place all the treasures including favourite small toys into your Dough Animal bag or a pillow slip if you don’t have a bag. Make sure your little one knows what they are putting in the bag, you can have a conversation about each object, how it smells, looks, what it feels like and what it does. 

Then, ask the child to find an item in the bag by only feeling with their hand.  This is a great activity for memory as well as tactile development.

5. Time for a Puzzle

We all love puzzles, so we’ve created a fun puzzle activity using your Childs favourite cookie cutter shape or you can use a cup/bowl to create the shape if you don’t have any cutters.

Press the cutter into the play dough to create the shape. Then ask the child to cut up the shape into 4 parts using a blunt bread knife or a dough cutter. 

Then you need to change the order of the pieces and ask the child to put the pieces back together like a puzzle.  

 

That's it! Loads of fun while learning through play.


And remember, that each of these activities, although they may seem simple, they are extremely stimulating and can take a lot of focus and attention for a little one to achieve.

You don’t need to do them all in one sitting but rather space them out over the week for 5 days of fun.

If you feel your little one needs a break, have them just play with the dough and objects in front of them without instruction, or they can create their own game.

The key to learning is play!

Make sure to check back for more activities, or sign up to our newsletter!

CategoriesEducational Newsby

The 6 Best Kids Party Themes to do in 2024

Here at Dough Animal we LOVE a party, we love attending them, we love celebrating them and most of all we love being a part of them. 

One of our favourite things to do in our HQ is create all the custom orders we get through for custom play dough party favours. They make the cutest and most unique favours to give your guests in their party bags or on a table on their way out that they can play with long after the party has ended. There are so many interesting themes, so many customer favourites, and we get a big insight into the latest trends our little ones are obsessing over., so we thought we’d share a few (although of course there are many Frozen, Barbie, Peppa Pig, Spiderman etc themes too) of our favourites.

1. Boho Rainbow

Image from lifeslittlecelebrations.org
Image from lifeslittlecelebrations.org
Image from karaspartyideas.com
Image from karaspartyideas.com
Image from karaspartyideas.com
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SO we do love a brightly coloured rainbow theme but the trend on the town is a muted boho rainbow with all the macrame frills, stretched rainbow arches and soft bohemian touches, think feathers, bean bags, super chilled and laid back.

The colours to include would be earthy reds, oranges and yellows with some pinks and purples to bring together the full look.

Some activities to do on the day:

– pin the star on the rainbow

– colouring in sheet and all the colours of the rainbow crayons

– play dough station to make play dough rainbows

– for older kids, make rainbow bracelet

2. Two The Moon (In Two Space)

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This theme can totally be done for any age but we especially love the play on words for a second birthday so if you have a little two-year-old-to-be then make sure to save this one.

You can literally go to space with the planet decorations, from balloon planets, paper planets, cardboard cutouts and tinfoil wrapped balls, or create one massive centre piece that just steals the show.

Our favourites are moon cake snacks (dipped Oreos) and blue popcorn in a silver cupcake holder as space food!

Some activities to do on the day:

– bowls with some space themed balls

– space sand making with crystals, sprinkles, coloured sand (all edible of course)

– paper mache planets

– create your own space world with play dough (we actually do space themed play dough or you can order custom from us here). 

3. Ice Cream Parlour

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We can literally eat this party up, it looks delicious and full of flavour. What little one could resist an ice cream party? Complete with a retro ice cream cake perhaps? Mind you I never had an ice cream cake and I need to make this happen before I turn 40!

You can go all out with this one, from a help-yourself toppings station, balloon and paper cone DIY ice cream decorations, Ice cream cupcakes and even a retro ice cream cart, the ideas are endless.

Summer babes are so lucky, aren’t they!

Activities to do on the day:

– toss a ball pond ball through the ice cream holes (cardboard cut out)

– toppings station to decorate your own ice creams

– we assume this party would be in the summer so some watersports like a slip and slide, crazy daisy sprinkler or water balloon fights would be great options

– cherry on a spoon race

4. Get Your Surf On (Under the Sea, Ocean, Beach)

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The most flexible theme of the year is the ocean related theme which can be mermaids, surf shack, beach party, pool party, under the sea or which ever fun way you’d like. We love a mixture and our favourite elements from the images above would have to be the sand castle cake, the small details in the algae up the wall, the scalloped table cloth and the amazing floating sharks above the gazebo which give such a great effect of being under water.

Some activities to do on the day: 

– Build an under the sea world using play dough – we sell a cute under the sea play kit which also happens to be our best seller. You can pick them up here.

– surfs up – walk along a plant and make sure you can balance like you’re on a surf board.

– dance party – can you move your arms like an octopus, swim like a fish, spread out like a starfish…

– using paint and glitter, paint some sea shells

5. Dinosaur's in the Wild

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Okay so there’s a dinosaur party and then there’s a pink dinosaur party and we’re here for both (although I love pink so I’m right in there with the pink dino tail!)

We love the small touches of an explorer hat customised with each child’s name, the gold spray painted dino toys as decor, the digging sand pit for little palaeontologists (this big word was taught to me by my 6 year old by the way) and dino footprints cut out of paper!

However our absolute favourite, and this works for any animal theme (puppy, kitty, safari etc) is the Adopt A Dino station where you can take a dino home!

Some activities to do on the day: 
– save the dinos from the ice (you can prepare this by freezing ice blocks half way, popping a dino in and filling with water and then refreezing or pop water and a small dino toy into a balloon and freeze.

– dino tail dance 

– excavation site with faux bones in a sand pit, dusting tools and magnifying glasses

– dino painting on canvas – name your dino, talk about what they eat, how they sound and show how they walk

6. Daisies

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Flowers? As a theme? Why not!

We love picking them, looking at them, smelling them and wearing theme, so why not make a day all about them, plus they make the cutest decorations, thinking daisy balloons, daisy paper plates and maybe even some real daisies? The best part is, this is the easiest DIY so get your craft on and make this gorgeous theme a reality!

Some activities to do on the day:

– flower crown making with real daisies

– flower garden potting with Dough Animal Flower Garden Play Kit’s these can be on a craft table or for each kid to take home. You can get them here.

– move on from craft gardens and plant some real daisy seeds in a pot to take home

– create an art piece using either real or paper petals

 

Looking for party favours?

 

Our play dough kits come in big and small sizes, perfect for your guests to enjoy long after the party is over.

We can also create a custom single dough pot with a label to match your theme that you can add to a party bag for your guests – get in touch.

CategoriesNewsby

How to have the perfect market stall

We have wanted to do a market in the UK for quite some time now, I mean it’s only been just over 3 whole years since we started Dough Animal and it has also been 3 years since the last Barnes Fair (due to COVID), the fair that sparked our thirst to have a market stall of our own.

We checked the Barnes Community Associations website every week for months at the start of this year, waiting to see if they’d be announcing the return of the fair this year, and we were delighted when we saw that they were, and that they were open to some new small businesses, given the scale of the fair grew to over 300 stalls this year.

It was go time, we spent every late night after our 9-5 creating stock, making dough, labelling, packaging and thinking about all the things we might need for our first fair.

We were a bit worried, would we have enough stock, will our decision to go cashless effect our sales, will our stall look on brand enough, will we attract customers…all the questions, worries and thought spiralled through our minds ahead of the fair – but we can tell you now, 2 whole days after the fair that it all went smoother than we could have imagined, there wasn’t a single hiccup, our store looked beautiful and we attracted every passer by.


Here’s what we packed:

  • Foldable trestle table (for storage after and easy to transport)
  • Pop up gazebo (for easy installation – min 2 people required)
  • Large sign to tie onto the back of the gazebo – this was the only signage we had and loved it – also reusable
  • Stand for our products 
  • Table Cloth
  • Bunting – this really made the whole stall stand out
  • Some storage bowls, boxes and stands from IKEA
  • Card reader as we were cashless – this was SO easy to install, setup and use – we really loved it and it changed the market experience, we also found that every single customer expected to pay by card so we made the right decision to go cashless.
  • Gift bags for purchases – people were quite surprised that we had gift bags – we also popped in a card into each bag with our details website and 10% off their next order.
  • Kids play table, chairs and some play dough – we’ll talk more about this.

Our best idea ever?

We added a kids play table and chairs to the side of our stand which had loads of play dough and play tools on it, we also made a rather large sign using our Cricut that said “PLAY AREA” and this really drew people in. The play table was busy the entire day from 9:30-5:30 with loads of kids playing play dough, parents relaxing on the bench and families meeting each other.

95% of the parents who’s kids played at the table, bought products, and some whose kids played for 20+ mins even came back to buy more dough as they never realised just how much their child would enjoy it.

It was so lovely to see so many little ones engrossed in play, learning through play and communicating with each other and their parents about their interesting builds. This is exactly what our brand is about, helping kids learn through play, how important play is, and for their parents to have time to sit down, breathe and relax, but also to take in their childs interactions and understand their processes.

Will we be doing a market again? Most definitely. We learnt so much, met such amazing people, and had a great day.

CategoriesActivitiesby

Let’s make some homemade stampers using simple kitchen pantry materials

Skills learned:
Sensory play, Fine motor skills, Creativity, Concentration

As we are still pretty much in lockdown and many kids are still at home, you may be the kind of parent that gave up on home schooling a long time ago already and letting the kids learn through playing and learning as they go, or you may be absolutely loving being teacher at the moment and have a weeks worth of activities planned every Sunday.

Well no matter which parent you are, you’ll love this easy and fun activity using only kitchen pantry items – your kids fav Mac and Cheese pasta and clean ice lolly sticks from the recent heatwave, oh and of course some play dough but if you don’t already have you can get some here.

What you'll need

Dry macaroni or any dry pasta

Ice lolly sticks

Hot glue gun

Play dough

Steps

 

Start by heating up your glue gun (this one is for the parents as it can get really hot!)

Place some glue dots on the ice lolly sticks and ask your little ones to place the macaroni or pasta onto the glue dots, be quick as the glue dries fast!

Get creative with the placement as these will make lovely imprints in your play dough.

Start stamping! Creating patterns in the dough with home made stampers is very exciting for little ones and teaches them some excellent skills such as imprinting, cause and effect and patterns and texture.

We’d love to see your creations, tag us on Instagram @doughanimal

CategoriesReal Storiesby

How to manage working from home with a toddler in tow

by Lizy Oakes

So I think I have sat down and attempted to write this blog seven times now, and I suppose there is some irony in that. The title: How do you manage working from home and a toddler? Well…we are now over there weeks in to lockdown and i think it is fair to say…the process is not a smooth one!

Initially I thought I was super woman, I had a daily chart, I’d used Pinterest to look up things to do with little one, created folders of work, decided what home learning I was offering for each year group at school, chosen to lead my nursery Whatsapp group so that little one could stay in touch with her friends, decided I was doing Joe Wicks to get thin during lockdown, made my shopping list and prepped my meals whilst all the time dealt with, ‘Mummy?’ and ‘Darling have you seen.. ‘. It turns out that is not achievable.
 
I pride myself on my organisation skills, I have always been the ‘doer’ I like to plan my plans, I think it is my way of coping – which is probably a nice way of saying my coping mechanism is being in control, my anxiety takes over when I am not planned – something which my other half has had to learn to accept and negotiate too.

I am a teacher in a secondary school, teaching my first love - drama, and I had always thought I would be able to keep the same level of organisation once I had my daughter, how wrong I was.

They tell you, but you just aren’t prepared for the complete life overhaul and when I returned to work when little one was 9 months I had to change, accept that being everywhere and the ‘ideal’, no matter what you see on social media or are told by others, just doesnt happen in reality – well not in mine. We all learn to do what works for us and get by one day at a time.

I think once lockdown was announced I reverted to ‘I must be in control’, everything wasnt normal anymore, not that ‘normal’ is a thing but my normal day to day. I had decided that in order to survive I needed to plan. All these people who are posting ‘my house is clean from top to bottom, what to do next?’, and ‘loving life in the sunshine with a glass of wine’. I was SO envious and I decided I could do that, I just needed a timed schedule. My other half, bless him, went along with my crazy idea even though he was still running his business full time from home. It took me about 5 days, and the realisation of having to get in the bath at 2am because I was in so much pain from going all out with Joe that, I couldn’t do it, I wanted to but if I was going to sustain this for the foreseeable then it had to be achievable.

The extension of the lockdown has been announced and I have not attempted to plan in any way shape or form, I have realised I cant control anything during this dreadful time.

What I can do is show my little one how to deal with stress, anxiety, isolation and change of routine by showering her with love and showing her that mental and physical health mean everything.

I find myself thinking of all the children at school, particularly those who I know seek solace in that environment and know that is what they would crave, so I need to be an example and positive role model.

So how am I juggling things?

We have probably watched too much television, eaten the wrong things, stayed in our pyjamas most days – or changed from pyjamas into other pyjamas, cried, tried and failed at potty training, got play dough stuck in the carpet, eaten too much easter chocolate, but we have made memories that I will remember forever. We have laughed so hard, I have heard my little one stringing together words that I didn’t even know she knew and also realised she is a true blend of her mother’s sass and her father’s humour.

I have also tried to remember that we will never get this time back, and as full time working Mummy I am counting my blessings that I get this time with my little girl and my other half. I am doing what I can, when i can for work and trying not to let myself stress too much. Whenever I see my other family, my school kids, I will help them – that is what I do, but for now I am responding to their emails and praising them for completing what work they can, they know I am here for them. I find myself talking about them more than ever, I miss them, I suppose teaching is a vocation after all, not just a job.

I’ve moved away from a minute by minute activity list and instead I just have a daily piece of paper, I write down things I would like to get done, I have worked out I am at my best in the morning so do what I can then. I try and have a different focus each day so today was numbers but other days I will do things focused on shape, letters, colours, textures and animals. I often do something based around a book each day – we will read the book and then I will pick an element of the book that links to the daily focus.

I feel I have actually learnt to accept during lockdown, accept that we are always one day closer to getting out of this awful time, accept I am normal for having crazy emotional rollercoaster moments, accept I am not a failure if I don’t meet my own crazy deadlines, accept my little one thinks I am the best Mum (even on days I don’t feel like it) and accept that I am lucky to be safe.
CategoriesReal Storiesby

The benefit of learning through play

A word from reception teacher Danni Strange:

As a passionate Reception class teacher I love sharing and promoting play based learning experiences for young children. The Early years are paramount to children’s development not only for fundamental academic skills such as reading, writing and early numbers; the children also learn to negotiate, share, take turns in conversation and develop their own likes and interests.

So how is play dough beneficial for early learning?

Wow, the benefits of play dough… where do I begin? Most Early Years Foundation Stage settings in the United Kingdom have an area dedicated to play dough. To the naked eye this can appear to be a low level holding task, in fact what you’ll find is quite the opposite.

Creativity and Imagination:

First and foremost play dough is a creative medium that provides the children with unlimited possibilities in terms of moulding and expressing their imagination. Even from a young age, children create simple representations of people, animals and objects. This skill is a predecessor to the development of story narratives.

Social skills:

The play dough table is a great conversation station with children creating narratives around their objects, working through and discussing problems and also explaining their strategies and ideas for creation. It is important for adults to model this language while playing alongside their children e.g. “I am going to roll tiny balls of play dough to use for the eyes”.  Once the children have created their characters, they can create a story, there are some lovely examples of this in the Magical Forest blog post. Furthermore, if children are using play dough with siblings or peers it becomes the perfect situation to execute turn taking and the realisation that often you have to wait for resources.

Fine motor skills:

Play dough is incredibly malleable, durable and stretchy. For little fingers and hands the act of squishing, rolling and pinching all help to develop the muscles in their hand. Not only that, often when manipulating dough the children will use tools which requires control and precision. By enhancing the muscles in their hands the children are able to hold their pencil the correct way and have a firmer grip and better pressure when it comes to writing.

Mindfulness:

It has become increasingly important to equip children with the skills they require to identify feelings and to develop strategies to regulate these. One approach we are using is Mindfulness. The children are encouraged to focus on their breathing and to execute the ‘feel, stop, think, act’ process. Play dough is the perfect tool for this, particularly scented dough. The children can sit in one position focus on their breathing and complete repetitive actions such as rolling and squashing. We have found that as the children become more relaxed they are provided with a great opportunity to express and discuss their emotions.

CategoriesEducationalby

Educational activities using play dough

Activities that reception teacher Danni Strange recommends:

Dough Disco (Shonette Bason-Wood):

In the first half term we provide the children with opportunities to develop their fine motor skills. This includes a daily Dough Disco using our play dough. Shonette has created numerous videos on her YouTube channel which allow children to copy her actions while having a dance. The children really enjoy these quick sessions and they know that they are “getting their fingers ready for writing!”

Mini teachers:

This activity develops the children’s conversation skills alongside their fine motor development. The children will provide the adult with instructions on how to make a specific object or will lead their own interactive session. To develop the children’s language skills you can pretend that you are an alien and therefore only do what the children tell you to do (literally!) This may seem very silly at first but it will encourage your children to give clear instructions and develop their explanations.

Story telling:

There is mountains of research that emphasises the importance of reading to your child to support language development and exposure to new vocabulary. By creating stories using your Dough Animal characters you are increasing the children’s story vocabulary, providing them with a means of escapism, developing their imagination and creativity as well as strengthening family relationships.