In the infant room this month, the children have been very interested in play dough experiences. This time we had added cinnamon to enhance the experience as it added a sweet and woody aroma that instantly flooded the room. The cinnamon also helped to make the dough darker just like gingerbread, which made it perfect for our cookie making. The children were given rolling pins, a variety of different cookie cutters, and cups to manipulate the materials around them. The children were seen enhancing their fine motor skills by squeezing, pinching, rolling, and cutting the play dough. This all helps strengthen their little muscles in their hands, and prepares them for more complex fine motor play in the future. This also helped with their hand-eye coordination by having to push the different cookie cutters through, as well as filling up their cups.
As we saw the children filling up the cups with play dough we thought we could scaffold their learning by adding one more loose part into the bin. We added cotton balls to act as “marshmallows”. The children were immediately seen picking the cotton balls up one by one and adding it to their cup of play dough. We then said “We are making hot chocolate for our cookies.”. Play dough is packed full of different benefits for children as seen through their play. It promotes children to be creative, practice their social skills, develop their fine-motor, and a way to elevate their senses through touch and smell. This was a really great activity that was inviting for the children to walk into in the morning and it kept them engaged for a long period of time!
