Salt Dough Ornaments and other projects

We made salt dough ornaments among other things this week. the recipe for the dough is a 1:1 ratio of salt and all purpose flour and a 1/2:1 of water (so if using 1/2 cup each of flour and salt, use 1/4 cup water - I had to add a little more flour to the mix with this but the end result should be an easy to roll or manipulate dough that's not too sticky).

I set it up like this:


Mary Louise and David were beyond excited! They chose to use cookie cutters with their dough, but I also gave them the option of doing hand prints. I am hoping they'll agree to do the latter during the next round.

They loved smashing and cutting the dough - and the free use of cookie cutters with the promise of painting later was just icing on the figurative cake!








Some of our shapes before baking:


Poke a hole for hanging and bake at 200 degrees for 3 hours - the point is to dehydrate them completely.

Let them cool...and paint away! (you can also make different color dough by adding a few drops of food coloring. We used to make things like candy canes like this when I was little - (twist red and natural together, bake, seal and hang) After the paint dries, seal them with varnish or a spray lacquer, put ribbons or string through the hanging holes once that is dry and you have your very own homemade ornaments. Easy, so fun and, when sealed well, the ornaments can last for years.









Everett enjoyed a bit of tummy time on the trampoline while this was going on:


He can sit up - no problem and is really trying to crawl right now...


In case there was any hint of doubt left that he is (seriously) one of the happiest babies in existence: Everett woke this morning and blew raspberries by himself for almost 10 minutes. He then looked around, found his hands, studied them a bit, and tried blowing raspberries on them only to get so tickled that he started giggling and couldn't pucker anymore. I watched on the monitor - glued to it with a huge grin on my face. My cup runneth over...



Also included in this week's fun: worksheets from a pre k curriculum text, rag doll ornaments, and 2 kinds of turkey projects involving glue, glitter confetti and construction paper. We are also doing "letters of the day" a few times per week. I have to streamline this activity - but ultimately, it will involve seeing, tracing, and phonetically sounding out the letter, then doing some sort of project with that letter. We are working on the letter "F" right now as it coincides with the exercises from David's speech therapist.

xo,
Heather