Making Play Dough

Set Up: Tables spaced throughout the classroom, providing enough room all the way around for 5 students to work freely. Each table will consist of 1 small mixing bowl and sturdy spoon for each child, and containers of both wet and dry ingredients. The dry ingredients will consist of containers of flour, rice flour, cornstarch, cornmeal, and baby powder. Each container will have a small tablespoon sized scoop for measuring. Smaller containers with smaller spoons will contain baking soda, baking powder and salt. The wet ingredients will be a bowl of water with eyedroppers for measuring and dispensing, and squirt bottles of dish detergent, vegetable oil, and baby oil.

Objective: The goal is to create a ball of play dough without any instructions or recipes.

Activity: Ask the boys and girls to please choose a table, being sure not to exceed 5 at any given table, and to then mix his or her own play dough in his or her own bowl. With these limited instructions given, just stand back and watch.

As Dewey says on p. 36, “The child is already intensely active, and the question of education is the question of taking hold of his activities and giving them direction”. Children love to experiment, to mix and create. Watch as they add ingredients right away, or as they may be more cautious and observe others first. Listen to their discussions as they discover the textures with the additions of various flours and liquids given. This activity answers “yes” to both Dewey’s questions on p. 120, “Will the proposed mode of play appeal to the child as his own?”, and “Will the proposed activity give that sort of expression to these impulses that will carry the child on to a higher plane of consciousness and action, instead of merely exciting him and then leaving him just where he was before?”

Results: This activity allows for scientific development during later discussions about the properties of the various ingredients used and how and why some would create pliable dough and cause others’ creations to crumble. It encourages social interaction amongst the students as they observe, discuss, and question; not only at their own tables, but between the tables, especially when a student has success and proudly displays a successful ball of play dough. p. 18 “…..the child, after all, shared in the work, not for the sake of the sharing, but for the sake of the product.” This would meet Dewey’s approval as he says on p. 15, “….the tragic weakness of the present school is that it endeavors to prepare future members of the social order in a medium in which the conditions of the social spirit are eminently wanting.” This activity provides much social interaction, experimenting, individualism, problem solving and eagerness to go further.


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