WEEK OF JANUARY 28- FEBRUARY 1

This week the children are going to learn to make playdough.

When working with children you have the opportunity to help them learn as well as have fun. This lesson shows how a simple activity such as playing with play dough can help a child develop several skills. Let's take a look! Children enjoy the sensory experience of pounding, rolling, and shaping play dough. Play dough helps children develop eye/hand coordination and build concepts of form and shape. Art activities such as working with play dough build connections in the brain. Art activities build cognitive skills such as understanding cause and effect and problem solving. They also require "small motor" or "fine motor" movements, which are little movements with fingers. Play dough is an example of a fine motor activity. Children learn through their senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. Each time a child uses a sense, a connection or path is made in the brain. When children have different experiences, or repeat an experience, the brain connections become stronger. All of these experiences and connections help determine the way children learn, behave, feel, and act.