Playdough: It's the new television

[ailbhe]

Mary came and Emer took out a box of playdough cutters to play with and suddenly I realised that I could make playdough now, we don't have carpet anymore, so Linnea and I went into the kitchen and mixed up two cups of flour, two cups of water, a cup of salt, two tablespoons of oil, and some food colouring. I stirred over a low flame it until it was doughy and then we kneaded the colour through it properly and then they made things.

I should have thought of it months ago.

The rest of the afternoon went much better.

And now Maria and Louis and Phoebe are here.

Comments

[pauamma]

Ooblick! :-)

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

I love it when I'm teaching someplace with something to cook on, so I can give the kids warm, white playdough, and offer them coloring (though I tend to choose a few that blend, ahead of time): "We have dark blue, turquoise, pink, and red, and you can have four drops of coloring -- which would you like?" Then they each end up with something a little different, and get to watch the colors blend as they mash them into warm playdough with their own hands. Afterwards, when we mix all the colors in a storage container and they blend together, they're still harmonious. :D Of course, their hands also become quite pretty, but there's always soap.

[ailbhe]

We had red and yellow. I tend not to have much in the way of food colouring in the house.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

We had liquid water color, which most folks don't have in their homes. It's a preschool thing.

[ailbhe]

Is it more watery than normal bottles of watercolour paint, then? Without losing strength of colour?

Food colouring doesn't wash off very easily.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

It's very strongly colored, but pure liquid like water. We diluted it half and half, usually, with water, to make it last longer, but it was still strong even then. Not all of it washes off especially well, the black and purple can stain a bit, but of course, at school, we had an old canvas cloth to cover the tables, which were outdoors, and the kids wore clothing that could get stained if need be, but mostly it's pretty safe. I love it as paint, though, not for especially great detail or quality, but just for sheer brightness.

(Using google images got me this:
http://www.kinderteacher.com/images/FallLeaf3.gif
This is drops, full-strength, on a paper towel. It is that bright. It's as pretty but doesn't spread as well on plain paper, we used a variety of brushes, wide, thin, fat, etc. for the kids.)