Thursday, December 20, 2012

Gingerbread Play dough and Creative Ending


To make our gingerbread play dough, we simply used our regular play-dough recipe, colored it brown and added ground ginger and cinnamon-LOTS of it!  and we always, always make a LOT of play dough- at least three batches.





This has been the favorite place to play for two weeks now!  We placed it in our dramatic play center, added gingerbread boy and girl cookie cutters, rolling pins, cookie sheets, parchment paper and spatulas....


and oh yeah...candy:-)   (pom poms, buttons, pipe cleaners, and by the end of week two the glitter had been found and moved there as well.)






In this one area the children have been experiencing a great deal of problem solving, compromising, retelling literature experiences, creating role play scenarios and being creative.

Just before leaving for vacation, we gave each child a big lump of this beloved gingerbread play dough to take home.


And one other idea I did not get to photograph...

we acted out the story of the gingerbread man, much the way you would act out, "We're going on a Bear Hunt" until we got to the river.  We imagined being at the river..the people coming closer, the fox nearby....now what?  What would you do Gingerbread Man?
The children then went to the tables and drew a picture of and told us their idea to solve their problem.  They each drew and wrote their own endings.

Most of them were much different than the book.  I loved, "I swam across the river as I was really thick dough ", and "a whale came and I rode across his back to the other side and then he used his water and squirted the people while I got away."

The movement activity was a great precursor to the seat action of drawing and immersed the children more in the role of the character before trying to come up with an idea.

 

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