Colouring on Playdough

The past few days have been a little exhausting for us. Peanut is getting a tooth and has been very clingy and his schedule has been all over the place, so Monkey hasn't been getting a lot of my attention. Peanut is sleeping it all off today, so Monkey and I had lots of time to cook up some homemade playdough. 

I got the idea for the activity as well as the recipe for the playdough here: http://homegrownfriends.com/home/coloring-playdough-with-markers/

It's not a recipe I have ever used before - I make playdough at school but we can't use a stove so I always have to make a "no-heat" version - but I was eager to try the stovetop method. 

You'll have to follow the directions from the link above to make the playdough, but here are some pictures of Monkey and I at work. 

It turned out OK. Not the best I've ever made, but pretty good. I didn't add any food colouring because of the activity I had planned to do with the playdough next. 

Supplies: homemade playdough, markers, playdough tools, cookie cutters 

I picked up the cookie cutters at the dollar store, perfect for a Christmas season playdough activity!

I could barely get the picture taken before Monkey was grabbing at the playdough and markers. He was so excited to get playing!

Monkey cut off some smaller pieces and we rolled them out to use with the cookie cutters. 

Once we had cut out the shapes we wanted, we coloured them. This was great, I had to do one too, couldn't help myself! 

Aren't they cute? 

They only lasted a few minutes before Monkey grabbed his playdough trucks and acted like a typical little boy and destroyed them!

After a while, I encouraged Monkey to colour on a big rolled out piece of playdough. 

Then he wanted to chop it all up. 

Look at all the fine motor skills he's using!

Monkey must have thought that we didn't have enough toys out yet because he went and grabbed his mini animals to use, too. 

First, he made a pond for his hippo. 

Then he had all his animals together in one big bathtub. 

They were all talking to each other about sharing the bath toys, so cute!!! I love hearing his dialogue during pretend play. 

This turned out to be a big, messy, all jumbled up sort of activity. Monkey played at the table for over an hour, which is a long time for a three year old to stay engaged, and a perfect way to keep him entertained while I took care of his sick little brother. 

Mar