Mud Dough! My favorite new sensory recipe!!

I don't think I have been this excited about a recipe in a LOOOoooooOOOOng time!  When I received this "mud dough" recipe from Mother Goose Time, I couldn't WAIT to get my hands on it!  

I was PRAYING it wouldn't be a flop. (Seriously, this happens to me ALL the time when I find cool recipes online, but everything MGT has been tried and tested so I was thrilled to grab the ingredients and give it a go!)

This one is EASY, but I did a bit of magic on my own and added coffee grounds (fresh, not used) to give this a bit more of a "dirt" effect.  The smell of the chocolate pudding and the coffee grounds was pretty amazing.  I did, however, warn my littles that it would NOT taste like it smelled.

This is even gluten free, so it was safe to send home with my preschool babes without worry.

Talk about a great sensory experience to bring home how much pigs must love rooting around in their own mud!

We have been all about "Down On The Farm" here and each day discussing the different things we might find on a farm.  

We use our conversations to branch off into different experiences and discussions.  This is a GREAT way for me to see what they are thinking and HOW they are think!

I love this list!  We use list making as a part of circle time to give the children a more concrete circle time experience.  Everyone loves having their words printed and read and reread to them again and again throughout the day.  This is great for letter and word recognition and emergent reading naturally.

My favorite on mud day was #2. "Dirty pigs, NOT stinky pigs" was an observation made by one of my little 4's of his favorite part of the farm.

I followed his statement up with more probing questions like, "How does a pig get dirty, but not stinky?"  His reply was great!  "Make mommy clean up da' poop!"  He had already thought about the fact that pigs poo and somebody was gonna' need to clean that up!  He was also confident that it sounded like a job for a mama!!

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After reading, "I'm A Dirty Dinosaur!" by Janeen Brian and Anne James we brought out the "mud", pie tins, rocks, and sea shells to make "mud pies."  (these items were lovingly provided by Mother Goose Time!)

They sniffed, pressed, squishes, and even tried a bite (o.k....maybe a bite or two or three!) of their mud.  This was the consistency of homemade dough and the added coffee ground gave it more of a dirt look and feel.  The "dirt" mixed in well as they kneaded and pounded the dough into the tins.  

We added a bit of math to our sensory and science by lining up shells and rocks and counting how many we had of each.  We patterned rock, shell, rock, shell, rock, shell around our mud pies to make beautiful pie creations that we bagged up and took home with pride!  

Stuck In The Muck! Dancing Beats

We moved and grooved to this cute little diddy by Dancing Beats, "Stuck In The Muck!"
and "Catch The Pig!"

We use these little brain breaks to get us up and moving, because when we move, we learn!

Dancing Beats songs and dances are easy for our preschooler's to learn, repeat, and sing along to.  They feature catchy tunes, easy rhythms and easy motions that are slow enough to be repeatable.  

They are also dressed age appropriate and their movements are preschool appropriate!!

This is a very important feature for little bodies!  Nothing is more disappointing to a preschool age child than to not be able to follow along easily to dances that look fun and inviting and Dancing Beats understands that need by providing motions that involve large easy to follow movements. 

Songs and dances are a vital part of the preschool child's education which is why we include them daily. 

Studies show, "Singing songs is a powerful way for young children to practice language. When children sing, they practice pronouncing words and putting together sentences. Learning the lyrics to songs is also an effective way to remember information." http://articles.extension.org/pages/25592/music-activities-teach-important-skills-to-children-in-child-care 

The benefits of dance cannot be ignored and should not be dismissed.

"Dance is basic to learning. Children learn most readily from experience. John Dewey understood this when he asserted, “Action is the test of comprehension” (Dewey, 1915). To learn by “doing” and to act on knowledge is the basis of kinesthetic learning. Kinesthetic learning is becoming more widely understood through the work of Jean Piaget (1896-1980), Howard Gardner (1944- ), and other cognitive theorists. 
  
Dance, in particular, integrates kinesthetic learning with understanding. Preschool children do not conceptualize abstract processes (Piaget). They primarily learn through physical and sensory experiences. When children are provided with creative movement problems that involve the selection of movement choices, they learn to think in the concrete reality of movement. Thus, learning the art of dance helps young children develop knowledge, skill, and understanding about the world. "  http://www.ndeo.org/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=893257&module_id=55419

Sensory, science, literature, music, movement, dance and play!  All in a day, "Down On The Farm!" 

As always, we wish you well and we hope you get to play today!

-L