Apple Play Dough for Math Manipulatives and a FREEBIE

I LOVE celebrating Johnny Appleseed's birthday!  It is like the official kick-off to fall!  I have lots o traditions in my class.  I spent my weekend getting ready for it!  I just finished some apple play dough and it smells DE-LISH!

Play Dough Pan - See the scratched up bottom and sides?

Before I tell you about the apple play dough, let me tell you about my play dough pan.  I got married when I was WAY too young.  I was 18 (told you too young!), and my new mother-in-law game me a set of Pampered Chef pans as a wedding gift.  At the time, I worked at a preschool.  My kids were doing a beach theme, and I decided to make sand play dough.  I cooked it in one of my new Pampered Chef pans.  As I stirred, I could hear it scrrrrrratch, scrrrrrrraaaaatch, sccrrrrrraaaaattttch the bottom of the pan.  Years later, I went to a Pampered Chef party and saw how expensive those pans were.  OOPS!!!!  That is now my "play dough pan".  It is just perfect for all types of play dough!  Please don't tell my mother-in-law and if she should ever stumble across this post, I AM SORRY!!!  I KNOW BETTER NOW!!!  Ok - back to the apple play dough!

This is one whole batch!  I made 3.

Here is the recipe: (I got it from kidspot.com)

1 cup flour

 1/2 cup salt

2 tsp cream of tartar

2 tbsp olive oil

3/4 cup water

2 1/2 tbsp apple fragranced shampoo

red or green food coloring

 

Step 1. In a medium saucepan, whisk together the flour, salt and cream of tartar. Pour in the water, oil and shampoo
Step 2. Add a couple of drops of your chosen food colouring and whisk in.
Step 3. Place over a medium heat. Using a wooden spoon, stir constantly until the mixture forms a ball.
Step 4. Turn out onto a clean surface and leave to cool for a few minutes. Knead until you have a smooth ball. Store in a resealable bag or closed container in the fridge.

This play dough made a very small batch, so I made red, yellow, and green.  It smelled great while it was cooking.  The only bad thing is my 3 year-old was pretty mad that I was using her shampoo!  I LOVE play dough!

I am going to use this for math manipulatives this week.  I am going to tell them word problems and have them act it out with the play dough.  I am going to use this with small math groups and give each student a small bag of each color.  "If you have three red apples, six yellow apples, and 2 green apples, how many do you have all together?"  "Joey made 10 play dough apples them smooshed four of them.  How many were left?"  "Johnny has 3 apples.  Sally has 1 less than Johnny.  How many do they have all together."  I like word problems so I think adding play dough to them will be SUPER FUN!

I also made a fun Apple Life Cycle Crown that I wanted to share with you. Click the link to download!  These crowns are SUPER easy to make.  The apple life cycle goes around the band of the hat.  This crown is similar to my Phonics Crowns and Alphabet Crowns. 

 I have lots of other apple stuff in the works!  I will blog about it soon!  Have a fun week!