pla-no

Last year one of my students called playdough, "pla-no" all year long. He along with the rest of my class loved playing with "pla-no", so this year I decided to do a fun playdough activity on the first day of school.

If you don't know how to make playdough. Here is a very easy and cheap recipe to make homemade playdough.

1 c. flour

1/2 cup salt

1 c. water

1 T. oil

2 tsp. cream of tarter

Mix flour, salt, and cream of tartar in a heavy saucepan. Combine water, oil and food coloring and slowly pour into flour mixture, stirring constantly, and cook over medium heat. Cook and stir until it forms a ball and pulls away from the sides of the pan. Turn out onto wax paper. After it cools a little, keep in a Ziploc bag.

For my first day of school activity, I printed this poem on a small piece of paper and stapled it to each baggie.

This ball of playdoh is fun

But it’s magical as well.

With a few squeezes,

The future it will tell.

If it changes color,

A great year is ahead for you and me.

Squeeze it now!

What do you see?

Then, the morning before school started I poked my hole (with my finger) in each ball of playdough and dropped one drop of food coloring in it, then covered the hole up.

All the kids playdough changed colors, so it's going to be a great year!!!