Lotion dough is a soft, sweet smelling dough that’s good for both you hand and you senses. Lotion dough is simple to make. Just gather corn starch and scented lotion and food coloring if you wish.
Then mix together 2 cups of corn starch with a bottle of lotion.
Then mix for about 5 minutes.
Then add food coloring and mix for another few minutes.
And in the end you have the softest, best smelling dough around!
For fun practice with counting try making a counting book. For ours we used construction paper cut in half. Then we drew the amount of flower stems we needed on each page. Then to finish the pictures off we used colored pompoms to create flower blooms.
The explorers were restless and in need of a quick distraction and I remembered a science experiment that doubles as a magic trick I saw on Pinterest: bleach and water experiment or as I named it disappearing water.
To make disappearing water you’ll need:
A large Mason jar per explorer (or any other container)
About 1 cup of bleach
Food coloring
I explained to the explorers the importance of not touching the bleach or other chemicals and then set them free to mix the food coloring in the bleach to make colors. They’ll soon be quite amazed as the food coloring goes into the bleach, changes the color for a few seconds, and then the color disappears!!
A fun way to work on the ‘hoops skills’ and cool off in the summer sun!
For a new sensory experience or a slight twist on playdough try silky dough.
To make silky dough mix the following in a large bowl:
2 cups of very cheap hair conditioner*
2 cups of cornstarch
Optional add ins: glitter, food coloring, or sequins.
*The Dollar Tree is a great place to get this. And the different ‘flavors’ will change the smell experience for your explorers.
Humpty Dumpty sat on wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the kings horses and all the kings men couldn’t put Humpty together again.
The explorers and I love to do science. And when I came across this idea on Pinterest I knew they would love it. I made a few modifications to suit us and it was a blast.
First we took 6 raw eggs and drew faces on them. Then we took 6 sandwich bags and filled them with various materials that the explorers thought might save Humpty when he fell from the wall. They thought it through and decided on dryer lint, dry pasta, water beads, dry beans, dry rice, and paper towels. Next, we placed one egg in each bag and sealed it up. Finally, we placed the bags, one at a time, on the edge of the table and push Humpty off the “wall” and picked him up to investigate how he feared. Poor Humpty didn’t feel so well after the majority of the falls but the laughs were well worth it!
And to end the experiment the explorers and I practiced reciting the rhyme. So cute!
Super hero’s are a big favorite with the explorers and to truly embrace our inner super hero we all love to dress up. And what does every good super hero need? A mask!
Here’s what we did:
I started by finding a simple blank mask template on Google and printing them out. Then I had the explorers cut them out and glue a craft stick on to the side. Then they went to work decorating them. It was just as simple as that!
Do your explorers love superheroes?
The explorers LOVE to play with shaving cream! They will take any opportunity to play with it so in order to spruce things up a bit we tried crackle foam. To make crackle foam you mix a can of shaving cream ( the foaming kind, not gel) with a packet of candy pop rocks. The best way to get the fun snap, crackle, and pop experience is to fill a bowl with shaving cream and top it with the pop rocks and then let the explorers slowly mix the two together. The results is a very satisfying sound and crispy feel that everyone is sure to enjoy.
1. Jello
2. Shaving cream and cotton balls
3. Water beads
4. Shredded paper
5. Colored pasta
6. Water (plain and simple!)
Sometimes the explorers and I need something to mold. Playdough is always a good option but at times the explorers would like to keep their creations so salt dough is the perfect choice. Here’s how we make it at our house:
1 cup of salt
2 cups of flour
1 cup of warm water
Food coloring (optional)
Add all ingredients together in a large bowl and let your little explorer go to work kneading and mixing until smooth and moldable.
Then you have two options;
1. Play with the salt dough as you would playdough in which case you should add in food coloring.
Or
2. Mold the salt dough (without food coloring) into the shape of your liking and place on a baking sheet and put in the oven pre-heated to 325 degrees and bake for 1 hour. Then allow to cool for 1 hour. Then paint with acrylic paint.
CALM Explorers 