Exploring Homemade Playdough...with Feet

  We made playdough the other day, which we haven't done in awhile, and, given the time of year and the fact that I had found pumpkin pie spice in the cabinet, we added in a scent, which we had never done. We used a recipe from Two Big Two Little, adapting it just a bit to look like this: 

• 1 cup flour
  
• 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
  
• 1/4 cup salt
  
• 2 tbsp cream of tartar
  
• 2 tbsp cooking oil
  
• 1 cup water
  
• food coloring 
  

  (Mix the water and food coloring together separately, then add to the other ingredients.)  

    I let her pour in all the ingredients, except the food coloring, and even measure most of them. She did pretty good! It all ended up in the bowl anyway. After adding each ingredient, she asked, "Can I touch it?" and she'd feel it for a moment and then add the next thing. Of course the flour got everywhere, but it's flour - that's what it does. (She said that was her favorite part!) I hinted that since we were using pumpkin pie spice, we could make it orange like a pumpkin. "No, red and, um...green!" Okay, red and green it is. (Actually came out pink though.) 
     Putting it on the stove, I thought I'd misread the recipe because it looked too watery. But sure enough, after 5 minutes of continually stirring it at 200 degrees, it was playdough! 

    We had to let it cool, which was the hardest part for a 4-year-old. Eventually we started playing with it when it was still a little hot. Remembering a post I read about using feet in sensory play, I put it on the floor and stepped on it. She of course had to try it (that was the idea) and she was hooked. "I love the feel of this," she kept saying. Soon enough, all the playdough was on the floor and she was walking on it and making footprints and squishing her toes in it. It was still warm so that added to the experience. She liked making it flat and pretending it was pizza.

"Hey, I made it flat!" Check out the hair - she looks like Cousin Itt!

  When I insisted we put it back on the table (Grandma would be there soon and didn't like a mess) she discovered yet another way to flatten it. Ah, she's a creative genius; aren't I proud!

Necessity IS the mother of invention. She needed it flat...and there you are!