Blog Archives

Salt Dough Christmas Tree Decorations

12/16/2013

As you might already know Cakes and I like doing handprint crafts as gifts. I figure there are only so many years that her hands will remain small enough to be super cute as craft. Over the past few years we have done lots of painting prints with her hands however last year we branched out and created salt dough Santas. These were a hit with the family and friends who received them. Cakes being the creative little person she is suggested we make Christmas trees this year. With a little bit of research in the archives of our blog we found the Christmas tree handprints we made last year and decided that it was worth a shot.

At school we were making salt dough ornaments also, so in an attempt to not mass produce 23 identical ornaments the students looked at an example of Cakes' Santa from last year, her suggestion for a Christmas tree and my bright idea for a reindeer (blog post still to come) and choose one design to make.

Using the same recipe we used last year for the salt dough worked great with a little addition of some green dye. This was my bright idea to skip the painting step and to create a different look. This may have been successful if I hadn't forgotten we were still baking the hand prints when I cranked the temperature of the oven for our Sunday evening potato bake, opps. We had a little swelling in the palms of a few and a few burnt fingers. This was easily fixed by turning them over and painting them. If you do colour the dough you may wish to glaze them as it is a very matt finish.

Once the dough is made, cut, cooked and painted the fun really starts. Cakes squeezed out small blobs of PVA glue, sprinkled the glitter and tapped it back off. I attempted this at school with hot glue and the outcome was less than desirable. I think PVA glue is by far the best glue to use as it creates a perfectly circular blob and holds an even spread of glitter. Unfortunately the glue does flatten as it dries however it still leaves a shiny circle just like a perfect glittery bauble. Cakes (unlike the kids at school) does make things on mass, we have a successful production line set up. This is due to her beautiful giving nature (where she needs to give everyone the same thing so noone feels left out).

Learning

measurement
language development
hand-eye coordination
small muscle development
understanding tradition (Christmas)

What you need

salt
flour
water
food dye
bowl
spoon

measuring cup
rolling pin

knife
paper
scissors
oven
PVA glue
glitter
wax paper
straw
paper star

Kinetic Sand

12/2/2013

6 Comments

Cakes and I recently won a competition run by A Little Bird and Freestyle Kids. The prize was a 5kg box of the most fabulous stuff I have ever seen, KINETIC SAND. What is Kinetic sand you ask? It is something that no child or adult can walk past without touching (kind of like Goop or Oobleck for those of you across the ocean, but made of sand).

It moves just like goop but without the mess. When you press and push it, the kinetic sand stays together. When you hang it, drip it or squish it, it flows. Cakes and I had fun building sand castles and knocking them down. It was much more fun than ordinary sand as the sand particles moved with a mind of their own. It reminded me of little metal shards being moved around by a magnet.

It feels just like wet sand but without the sticky mess. Even though Cakes' favourite place at school is the sandpit she tends to stick to the dry sand. Her sensory aversions tend to keep Cakes on the cleaner side of play. This sand is perfect for her as she gets to experience the tactile play without getting messy. For parents concerned about mess this product is amazing. I am a bit cheap and hate to waste anything and our house is far from clean. So we tend to protect the play resource from the floor rather than the other way around. I was so pleased to find the sand was as easy to pick up as bits of playdough. With the cat walking around I was so worried about getting cat hair in it, but none got in, yay! At school I have carpet on the floor and I was able to salvage every piece of sand dropped, no dust, dirt or carpet was attached to the sand, double yay!

The box said that the Kinetic sand never dries out. We decided to test it out (with a very small amount, just in case) and after an entire weekend out, it was just as good as it was when we started. It also says it repels water so when we have a little more time we are going to add a moat to our next castle.

Loving some clean play

This is how Cakes looked at tidy up time.

Cakes was so busy experiencing a medium she usually avoids, she didn't really see how cool this sand really is. The kids at school however thought it was amazing. They couldn't believe how it moved all by itself, how it stuck together and how it separated.

I would recommend Kinetic Sand to all parents, teachers and children. I see specific benefits for students with special needs (with sensory processing disorders, poor small muscle development, etc). This is a product that will be seen in my classroom to cater for students who are tactile and kinesthetic learners. If you are a visual learner you might be interested in the video below, it will have you ohhing and ahhing.
You can follow Freestyle Kids on Facebook for updates on the Kinetic Sand (and other products)

Learning
Small muscle development
attention span
language development
creativity
cause and effect

What you need