Week 5 Part 1 - Making Colored Noodles and Rice

This week I decided that I wanted to be ambitious again and try out two different things.  One for the kids, and one for Valentine's gifts.  I started the week with a link that I found to make colored noodles and rice.  On the success of last week's cloud dough, I thought having some multi-colored rice buckets would be fun for the kids.  This pin on pinterest came from The Daily Buzz (http://www.thedailybuzz.com.au/2011/11/make-your-own_homemade_crayons_play-doh_chalk_fingerpaint/).  They had all kinds of great ideas for things to do with the kids.

I stopped by the store to get some rubbing alcohol, rice, and noodles.  My daughter and I found a bag that had three different kinds of noodles (shells, penne, and spirals).  I liked this b/c I can have her sort out the pasta by color then by shape.  It's two for one!  We set off home to dye our pasta. 

I was a little disappointed in myself not thinking to buy more food coloring when I discovered the only colors we had at home were yellow, red, and green.  We made due with what we had and started to mix the rubbing alcohol and food coloring (1 tsp. alcohol to how ever many drops of food coloring you want.)  I did this in a big measuring cup, so I could then just pour the rice or noodles on top of the food coloring mix up to the one cup line and stir.  It was a little harder than I anticipated to get all the mix throughout the rice and noodles and stirring took a little while.  I would let me daughter stir the first couple times, then I would take over to get it evenly distributed. 

 I did not have wax paper as the website suggested to let it dry, so I did foil instead.  We did this on the afternoon, and I let it dry overnight.  Some of the noodles were even a little tacky in the morning, so I let them sit a little longer. 

When my son got out from school, we broke out the rice and split it between two small buckets, so each kid could have their own.  They loved it once again!  I gave them some paper cups, measuring cups and spoons to play with.  They had a blast scoop, filling, and pouring the rice.  My son even put two cups together full of rice, tapped it on the side of the bucket then poured the rice out, saying he was pretending he was cracking an egg.  I loved it!!

The mess factor was bigger in the making of the rice and noodles (My daughter ended up with a stained elbow on her shirt from dipping it in red food coloring).  The mess factor from playing with the rice was minimal.  We kept it at the kitchen table, so it was easy to wipe off.  This was a great activity start to finish, and I like that I can put the rice in a plastic bag and save it for another time too!

Week 4- Part 2 - Cloud Dough

I used to be a preschool teacher before my kids were born, and I LOVED doing sensory tables in my classrooms.  We played with rice, water, sand, decaf coffee, and oatmeal, to name a few.  Since becoming a mom and and doing things in my own house, knowing I am solely responsible for cleaning it up afterwards, I resorted to cleaner things, like playdough for some sensory fun.  I came across this cloud dough on pinterest, and it peaked my inner preschool teacher interest.  I had my doubts b/c I had been sorely let down by moon dough.  The kids really didn't think it was that great, and I was not happy to be scrubbing tiny pieces of sand between the leaves on my kitchen table for weeks afterwards. That aside, I decided to go for it, and I am so glad that I did! 

This pin originated from the blog Juggling with Kids (http://www.jugglingwithkids.com/2011/11/cloud-dough.html).  The recipe is very simple.  You just mix 8 cups of flour with 1 cup of baby oil, and TADA!  You have cloud dough.  We pulled one of the containers off our shelf in the playroom to mix it in.  I would say plastic containers are the best for easy cleanup.  I am just going to stick ours in the dishwasher to clean it up. 

The kids helped mix the cloud dough together.  It was pretty easy.  You just need to really sift through and make sure there is no oil lurking in the corners.  It held up to its promise of being soft but very moldable.  We used cookie cutters, measuring cups, spoons, and small paper cups to play in the dough.  The kids made dough castles, dough cookies, and just dug around and played for almost an hour, when we had to stop them to get ready for dinner.  It was a success!!

The clean- up wasn't too bad.  The kids had to take showers afterwards anyways, so their clean-up was pretty easy too! :)  The only thing I might change for next time, is splitting the recipe in half and putting it into two containers, so they can each have their own, since there was a little squabbling at times over not being able to reach the dough.  Then again, this is a good exercise in sharing too!  One other change I would make is not having my daughter wear a long sleeved black shirt.  She was covered!! :)

Overall a great craft idea for the kids, and I think it might be good stress relief for adults too.  It was somewhat relaxing to mold the dough then crumble it then mold it again.  Ha!  We will definitely do this again.