I have already written about how important the baby is. Yes, I think you know that perfectly well without me. Therefore, today, without further ado, I want to tell you about one more exciting and very useful lesson - about sculpting with kids and how you can play if you have a piece of dough at hand. All these games are useful not only for the development of fine motor skills, but also for the development of the baby's imagination, thinking, and perseverance.

Often mothers ask themselves the question: "What is better to choose for classes with a baby: dough or plasticine?" In my opinion, it will be better if you give your child the opportunity to get acquainted with different substances and sensations, you will conduct classes with both a test and plasticine. But here for the smallest (from 1 year old), it is better to use dough in modeling lessons and that's why:

The dough is much softer and more pliable than plasticine, and for babies who still find it difficult to knead plasticine, this is important.

Considering the fact that many kids will want to taste the mass for modeling, dough (homemade) is much safer from this point of view, since its main components are flour, salt and water, and plasticine is still a combination of chemical components.

You can make the dough yourself, or you can buy it at the store (for example, "Play Doh"). But if at least once you knead the dough at home, then, for sure, you will no longer want to deal with the purchased one. Homemade dough is more plastic, softer, more pleasant, and there is also a lot of it! In addition, the dough preparation process is quite simple and does not take much time.

So how to make a sculpting dough? I will give two dough recipes that I have repeatedly tested and I really like. The first recipe can be called the classic salt dough recipe. The dough on it is prepared very quickly and simply, it is often used to create durable crafts, after drying it can be painted.

Salted Modeling Dough - The Classic Recipe

1 cup flour

½ glass of salt (preferably "extra")

½ glass of water

1 tbsp vegetable oil

Mix all the ingredients and knead well until smooth.

Very plastic dough recipe

And one more recipe for a very, very soft, plastic, homogeneous and, I would even say, ideal dough! :) It is not suitable for drying and painting, but it suits perfectly for fun games with the dough.

1 cup flour

1 glass of water

¼ glasses of salt

1 tbsp vegetable oil

2 tsp citric acid

Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan, stir, then put on medium heat. After that, we begin to actively stir the dough with a spoon until it forms a ball and stops sticking to our hands. It will take no more than 3 minutes to stir. After the dough has cooled down, you can start playing with it.

Do not neglect such a seemingly insignificant ingredient like citric acid! If you do not add it, then after storage in the refrigerator, the dough will begin to stick to your hands.

Food coloring can be added to any test variant. If you do not have a dye to tint the dough, you can use beetroot or carrot juice, turmeric, brilliant green, gouache. Well, if you divide the dough into several parts and paint them in different colors, it will be even more interesting!

Both doughs are kept in the refrigerator in a closed container for a long time (several weeks).

Dough games

So, you have the dough, what to do with it next? First of all, of course, you need to introduce the baby to the test. Give him the opportunity to touch, wrinkle him. You can mold some bun or bunny to show what the dough is capable of. If the acquaintance was successful, you can move on to the games.

Remember that the entire session should not take longer than 5-10 minutes. Do not try to include all the games in one activity, watch the baby and always stop before he gets tired of the activity. If your toddler loses interest in a particular game, it may be too easy or too difficult for him. Try to make the task easier or easier.

1. Roll out the dough with a rolling pin

The kid, most likely, will gladly begin to roll out the dough, because he has seen his mother do it more than once. If the crumbs are bad at wielding a rolling pin, help him by clasping his palms with yours.

Both a toy and a real kitchen rolling pin are suitable for the game. My daughter enjoys rolling with a large rolling pin even more.

2. Press various objects into the dough

Further, you can declare that the resulting tortilla is not just a tortilla, but a pizza or cake, which now needs to be decorated. And for this purpose, you can use a variety of objects: matches, pasta, beans, counting sticks, small toys, lids, etc. Try to use objects of different shapes and sizes to diversify the child's tactile sensations.

3. Create simple crafts based on pressing objects into the dough

Here are some examples:

• Hedgehog

For the smallest, toothpicks can be replaced with matches or counting sticks.

• Little man

Be sure to involve your child in rolling out the torso and head. If the baby is not doing well yet, take his palms in yours and rotate together.

4. Pinch off small pieces of dough, put them in a jar / bowl

This activity is very useful for the development of fine motor skills, as it trains the "pinch" grip. To beat the lesson is quite simple: offer the kid to feed his beloved bear with sweets. The little ones will most likely like the game - children for about a year. At this age, babies really like to tinker with small objects, fold and shift them.

5. Prick the dough on a fork

For the same candies you made for the bear, try sticking it on the fork as well. You can tell the baby that the bear prefers to eat only from the fork, but refuses in another way. So in the game we will imperceptibly work out a very useful skill.

6. Cut with a knife

In this lesson, the main thing is to teach the child how to hold the knife correctly and, which is important, independently hold the dough with his left hand (if the baby is right-handed). A toy plastic knife, a special plastic knife for dough, or a knife for butter works well for the game. The lesson will be interesting for a baby from about 1 year 3 months.

7. Leave prints on the test

We press the toy into the dough, carefully remove and ale-op, a beautiful pattern is obtained on the dough! Taisiya was simply delighted with this activity, and could get carried away for a long time, imprinting pasta on the dough.

Good for printing figurines from the sorter, pasta tubes, small toys, construction kit parts, a fork, a hairbrush ... Well, if according to the test, leaving traces, a car will pass (preferably with large wheels and protectors on them), then the kid will most likely appreciate it.

And, of course, it is worth mentioning separately the cookie cutters. With the help of them, you can not only make beautiful prints. With older kids, you can try to remove the "excess" dough around the molds so that "cookies" are obtained.

You can also make prints with your finger. After that, it will be very interesting to "sow" seeds into the resulting holes. This is another great tweezer grip exercise.

8. Pass the dough through a garlic press

9. Put the dough into a mold - make a pie

For this game, you can use both muffin tins and clean tins from a sand set. Putting the dough into the mold, we try to tamp each piece well. You will most likely have to get the cake out of the mold with mom's help, because this is not an easy task.

10. Hide surprises in the dough and find them

This game is our favorite. I think all children love it when there is a surprise moment in the game. They are ready to open intricate locks, unscrew the stubborn lids, just to see what is hidden behind them. Children are happy to find surprises, even if they have hidden them themselves!

Therefore, in this lesson, first, together with the baby, we hide the toy in the dough, putting it on one half of the cake and closing the second. Older kids can be encouraged to pinch the edges, as when sculpting a pie. Mom can do it for younger children. Well, then we ask ourselves the question "Where is our hedgehog?" or "Oh, who's hiding here?" Perhaps, at the first games, the kid will have to show how to "get to the bottom" of the toy. Most likely, the crumb will catch everything very quickly and subsequently will eagerly pick out the dough himself.

Even such a seemingly uncomplicated activity is incredibly useful for children's fingers.

11. Sculpt sausages, koloboks and simple figures with my mother's help.

That's all for me, I wish you pleasant joint games and more happy smiles on your baby's face! I would be very grateful if you share this article with your friends on social networks (there are special buttons for this at the bottom of the article). Well, in order not to miss new articles, subscribe to updates in Instagram,

Today I want to tell you something about plasticine. But not about ordinary plasticine, which you can buy in a store, but about one that you can make with your own hands.

As a mother, I have always been interested in the issue of all-round development of the child at home.

Somehow I came across information about the beneficial effects of modeling from plasticine on the development of fine motor skills of the hands, and at the same time the brain of the child. A little later, from acquaintances, I learned a story about how a speech therapist advised a child who spoke very poorly to start sculpting from plasticine.

It was decided to immediately buy plasticine and offer it to the child. The daughter liked the plasticine so much that she practically did not let it out of her hands, and it was only possible to pick it up with a fight. Then they noticed that the child began to bite and chew plasticine (it's good not to swallow). And I had a thought: is it possible to make plasticine for children with our own hands? Plasticine made from natural products and safe for babies.

A search on the net yielded results and a recipe was found, which I am sharing with you.

I want to say right away - I really liked it:

At first, it is absolutely safe (see the composition). Of course, the child does not need to eat plasticine. But if the kid accidentally shoves it into his mouth, then nothing bad will happen.

Secondly, the plasticine turns out to be very delicate, plastic and does not stick to the hands.

Thirdly, it can be easily erased with a damp cloth from the table, it does not have to be scraped off.

And fourthly , it was unexpected for me that the dye added to the plasticine does not remain at all on the hands during sculpting.

Its only drawback is that when we add dye to plasticine during manufacturing, our hands get very dirty. But this problem can be solved by using gloves.

So what do we need, to make plasticine for children with your own hands?

* flour 1 glass

* water - 1 glass

* fine salt 0.5 cups

* citric acid 1 tbsp (there was tartar according to the recipe, but I did not find it)

* vegetable oil 1 tablespoon

*food colorings

Mix all products and put on high heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until thick.

Remove from heat and mix well on the table, which can be sprinkled with flour if necessary.

Divide our "dough" into pieces, add a dye of a certain color to each of them and mix well.

I only found egg dye in tablets at home. I had to crush the tablets, dilute them in a few drops of water, and then mix them in plasticine. Since water was added along with the dye, I added a little more flour and mixed it all well. If you have a powder dye, I think you don't need to dilute it with water. Add dyes a little at a time so the color doesn't get too dark. The brightness of the plasticine colors depends on the quality of the dye.

In the original recipe, beet juice, carrot juice, spinach juice, etc. can be used instead of food coloring.

You can store such plasticine in the refrigerator for up to two months.

Yes, you can start offering your baby our plasticine from 6 months of age. Finally, I will say - my child was delighted with such plasticine. I think your kids will like it too.

We have learned how to make plasticine for children with our own hands, and very soon I plan to write an article on how to make safe paints for babies.

Sincerely.
Elena Medvedeva.

One of the most effective fine motor skills training is sculpting. According to experts, sculpting should be started as early as possible. In this article, I will highlight our favorite exercises.

Reading the materials how interesting modeling is for children, do not forget that most children at the age of 1 year are conservatives and love the established order. They have only recently come to terms with the idea that all toys are soft or hard. Plasticine is a completely new consistency for a baby, which endangers the existence of everything familiar. Even though you go and re-check all the items, suddenly one of them is like plasticine in consistency.

In addition, any creative activity requires not only the formation of a skill, but also the enjoyment of the result. This requires an awareness of the results and their capabilities, which is very weak in the second year of life. Therefore, if you decide to do modeling with a toddler under two years old, do not expect much jubilation and joy.

The simplest element - "sticks" (cylinders) is mastered by most children in the third year of life. Some can only handle a cylinder when they are three years old. After mastering the cylinders, you can take up the balls.

The book "Plasticine Beads" contains 8 pages of exercises for gluing balls. A one-year-old baby can handle them quite well. For a two-year-old, you can complicate the tasks by offering ordinary plasticine. It is more elastic and modeling with it will be more useful for the development of finger motor skills. One of the best is the classic plasticine produced by Luch (Khimzavod).

In "Plasticine Oranges" there are 8 pages of exercises for creating all kinds of balls:

Enjoy your modeling lessons!

More publications

Since a baby at an early age is ready to pull everything into his little mouth, edible plasticine will help parents solve the problem of “eating” a product for creativity. After all, this is not only the active development of fine motor skills and the creative abilities of the toddler, but also a pleasant pastime.

Peculiarities

Most parents have questions about at what age a child can be given plasticine in their hands. The answer is simple: watch your child, and as soon as the baby begins to be interested in toys and walks, you can safely give plasticine.

For a one-year-old child, play with plasticine should become a daily norm.

For your child to be interested in sculpting, you need to present this lesson to him in the form of a game, but in no case should you force him to sculpt... To do this, you can try to sit next to him, pick up plasticine and mold the simplest figurine, for example, roll a sausage. The kid will certainly want to know what it is and take it in his hands.

In addition to rolling the sausages, you can also use other simple plasticine manipulations. For example, even pinching off pieces or kneading it in the palm of your hand will help. You can also try to roll a bun, while decorating it with some elements to make an interesting craft (for example, adding a leaf with a sprout to it, you get an apple).

For children from one year old, it is recommended to use dough or soft plasticine for sculpting. Today on the market there are a huge variety of options for soft mass for modeling, and any parent can choose the right one for their child. Almost all such products have a unique softness, and when they come into contact with air, they gradually begin to harden. Thus, the finished figurine hardens in a few hours. And one more feature of such a mass - if a frozen toy is dropped on the floor, then the craft, like a ball, will bounce off the floor.

The baby's first crafts are the story of a child's formation and cognition of the world. You can be proud of them, put them on the shelf with other achievements of your baby. Let everyone know what a smart child you are growing up.

Gradually begin to complicate the tasks for the child: show how you can make more complex ones with the help of simple details. And pieces of plasticine attached to a board or cardboard in the form of a drawing can be the first step for a kid to the art of creating miniature applications.

Among the huge variety of plasticine crafts, you can choose the simplest ones that will not take much time. For example, a child can be shown how to make a snake (roll a sausage and attach an eye on each side) or a mushroom (roll a short sausage and attach a flattened ball hat to it).

How to organize a lesson?

• Prepare your workspace for creativity... It will be enough to find a place to study with the child and lay a newspaper or other unnecessary material on the work surface.
• Prepare your baby for the sculpting process... Give him plasticine, you can do the box itself. Let him examine it, smell it, touch it. After all, this is his first acquaintance. He should know what kind of "thing" he has in his hands.

• Show how to handle a new thing for him... To do this, take plasticine in your hands and do the simple manipulations with it, described above.
• Show the molds for working with the sculpting material... Teach your child to use them. Use them to mold a figurine.
• Prompt your baby... Teach him to identify the color of the craft. Consult the choice of colors for a particular type of toy (crocodile - green, car - yellow or red).

• Express your admiration for your child. his skills. Praise his crafts. Put them in a prominent place, be proud of them.
• Teach your baby to wash handles after sculpting and clean up the workplace after yourself.
• The first acquaintance with plasticine should not take more than 10 minutes, gradually the time can be increased.

Manufacturers

In the market for eaten plasticine manufacturers, there are several companies that have earned the trust of buyers due to their excellent reputation. Consider the most popular sculpting products from these manufacturers:

Dough for modeling the brand "Dough from childhood". A domestic manufacturer that is in no way inferior to foreign counterparts. The advantages of such a baby product:

• Convenient storage. The material is packed in four plastic jars.
• The mass is soft, does not stick to the arms of the child.
• There is a possibility of mixing colors.
• Natural composition (plastic, salt, flour, natural dyes).
• The mass is salty in taste.
• Can be used by children from 1 year old.

How to cook?

Recipe number 1

The following ingredients are required to prepare this product:

• ½ cup butter. It should be unsalted and softened.
• Cream in the amount of 1 tablespoon. It is advisable to take thick ones.
• Powdered sugar. 3-4 glasses will be enough.
• Vanilla extract. You need very little of it - only ¼ teaspoon.
• Gel dye (food grade).

Cooking technology:

• Beat the cream and butter with a mixer so that a homogeneous mass is obtained, while sprinkling it with powdered sugar. We make sure that the mass becomes thick and dense - suitable for sculpting.
• Add vanilla extract.
• Knead the dough on the surface and sprinkle with powdered sugar.
• Divide the mass into parts and add a drop of food coloring to each of them.
• Mix well. Remove excess stickiness by adding powdered sugar until they disappear.

Ready! We have received plasticine for modeling.

A few tips:

• It is not necessary to use food coloring to add color to the modeling mass; it can be replaced with natural ones. For example, beet juice is perfect for dyeing plasticine red, and carrot juice is perfect for dyeing orange.
• Storage of plasticine must necessarily take place in a closed container or cling film. After you take it out of the refrigerator, let it warm for 20-30 minutes at room temperature. During this time, the plasticine will soften and become more pliable.

Children love to sculpt from plasticine.

After all, from it you can not only form various figures, but also remake them several times, smearing yourself and smearing everything around.

But what is safe plasticine? How to choose plasticine for a child?

For children's creativity, plasticine is indispensable. But it must be safe and non-toxic. After all, there are cases of swallowing it. This is especially true for children from a year to 2.5.

1. You need to choose not too bright shades. Calm tones are best suited for sculpting.

2. Plasticine must be pliable and elastic. It should not melt in your hands and crumble. But it should be easy to warm up from the warmth of the hands and sculpt without much effort.

3. Composition. In its composition, children's plasticine should not contain toxic substances and elements that can harm the child.

4. For very young children it is better to buy edible masses for modeling because of the possibility of accidental swallowing.

5. Smell. Plasticine should have a pleasant aroma so that the baby likes to work with it.

6. Pieces of high-quality plasticine should mix well and stick to each other.

7. A craft made of high-quality plasticine should not lose its shape and disintegrate into its component parts.

8. Plasticine should not stain hands and clothes too much, and if it leaves a little marks, then they should be easily washed off and washed off with warm water and soap.

9. Additives in plasticine should be only vegetable.

10. Good plasticine should be easy to cut in stacks.

11. Also, good plasticine should easily roll on any surface and between the palms, without sticking to them.

12. High-quality plasticine can be easily removed from the surface using a stack without leaving stains.

13. It also easily adheres to paper, wood, plastic, cardboard.

14. Good plasticine can be outdoors for a long time without changing its qualities.

When buying plasticine, be sure to consider the age of the baby.

What is the difference between different types of plasticine?

The composition. If you buy plasticine for the kid to sculpt figures out of it, give preference to wax compositions. Such plasticine holds its shape well, but it is quite hard and elastic, so the baby will have to spend some time and make some effort to soften it. Although this is not bad, since the child, in this way, trains fingers and develops fine motor skills.

If you need plasticine to create paintings, then it is better to buy more viscous varieties.

Pay attention to the fact that the more colors there are in the package, the more interesting it is to combine them.

Safe plasticine and its types:

1. The classic ordinary plasticine that we used to sculpt in childhood. Some varieties of such plasticine are a little harsh and require preliminary kneading, but there are also soft ones initially. Some brands of such plasticine stain your hands and do not wash well.

There is also a type of such plasticine - wax. It is much softer than usual, better molded and glued together. It is a multi-colored soft sculpting material. It lends itself well to mixing colors, from it you can alter and finish the figures several times.
It is often sold as rectangular bars.

The highest quality of this type of plasticine of the following brands:
- Cartoons, manufacturer: Gamma, Russia. Plasticine connects well to each other and colors are easily mixed. Before work, you need to knead. Leaves greasy marks on paper. After work, hands can be washed with warm water and soap without much effort. Some colors "get dirty" (mostly dark - black and blue).

Baby, manufacturer: Luch plant, Russia. Designed especially for young children. Doesn't get your hands dirty. Plasticine is very soft, so it does not require kneading beforehand. With it, you can not only sculpt, but also draw on paper and cardboard, creating three-dimensional paintings.

Sun, manufacturer: Gamma, Russia. (Labyrinth, My-shop). In terms of properties, it is similar to Cartoons, just the colors are brighter and richer.

2. Ball plasticine

Ball plasticine is an amazing material that will delight children to play with.
Plasticine consists of small, very light granules, joined together with safe colored glue.
Plasticine from balls is very light and does not stick to hands, and its embossed surface is an excellent massager for children's fingers. Crafts from such plasticine keep their shape well.

There are two types of plasticine: when the balls are colored, and the adhesive gel between them is colorless, and when the balls are white and the adhesive is colored. In the second case, the balls can be mixed and new colors can be obtained.

Also, ball plasticine can be air-cured and non-drying. Not drying out - reusable, and from drying out excellent figurines-toys are obtained, with which the child can play.

Such plasticine is fine-grained and coarse-grained, the only difference is in the size of the balls.

You can work with ball plasticine in different ways: as with ordinary plasticine - sculpt items of crafts in one color, you can mix the balls. Ball plasticine can also be used to make applications - for this you need to distribute colored balls over the surface. Some types of ball plasticine glow in the dark.

The plasticine feels very pleasant, it adheres well to itself and to the modeling mass. Holds well on paper.

Examples of ball plasticine:

HOBBY ball plasticine, manufacturer: China. Fine-grained, freezes in air, does not stick to hands and clothes. The colors are bright. It is inconvenient that all the colors are in one box, and if the lid is not closed, then all the colors dry out. Therefore, it is better to transfer to separate jars.

Ball plasticine Dr. Charlie, manufacturer: Taiwan.

A set for creating a volumetric sculpture. The kit includes everything you need. Plasticine: gray, white, white with sparkles, blue, lilac, yellow, orange, pink, green. The set includes: wire 12 pieces multi-colored, eyes 10 pieces, pompons 12 pieces multi-colored and shiny, feathers 5 pieces colored, shapes from EVA multi-colored and different.

Plasticine from balls is very light and does not stick to your hands.

Set for modeling Greenwich Line "Animals" (OZON), manufacturer: China.

The kit will allow you to mold miniature figures in the form of an octopus, ostrich, swan, cat and hedgehog. The ball mass for modeling, which is part of the set, has an interesting texture and does not freeze in the open air, which means it can be used several times.
The set includes a mass for modeling pink, gray, yellow and white colors, four plastic elements in the form of eyes with movable pupils and detailed illustrated instructions in Russian.

You can see the entire range of ball plasticines: Labyrinth online store.

3. Plasticine that hardens

It usually has bright saturated colors and hardens within 24 hours. A figurine made from such plasticine can be an excellent toy or decoration for a child's room. You can even create your own collection from them. It is also interesting to make Christmas tree decorations from such plasticine.

4. Sculptural plasticine

It is a professional sculpting material. It is used most often by professional sculptors and art school students. It has a wax base and holds its shape well.

5. Art plasticine

Suitable for school children. It can be soft and hard. The first is well suited for making appliqués and paintings, the second - for volumetric figures.

6. Special mass for sculpting

It is suitable even for small children, as it is non-toxic and very soft. The disadvantage of this material is that it dries quickly. It cannot be kept outdoors.

7. Floating plasticine

Figures made from it float well in water, while it does not dry out (it can be used many times) and does not melt.

8. Modeling paste

It is interesting in that it is pleasant to the touch and with its help figures are made, which can then be painted.

9. Jumping plasticine

It is interesting because the balls molded from it jump well.

10. Plant-based plasticine is suitable for the smallest sculptors. Even if the crumb pulls a piece into the mouth during sculpting, nothing bad will happen. And he is unlikely to have a desire to repeat the experiment. After all, this material, although edible, is very tasteless. It is usually made from flour or starch. Another advantage of such plasticine is that it is much softer than usual, so it will be very convenient for the child to work with fragile fingers.

I have listed the types of plasticine that I have encountered myself. But I am sure that this list is far from complete. What plasticine do your children play with? Share with us in the comments.

After all, all parents want their kids to develop harmoniously, and modeling allows you to improve the work of fingers and develop fine motor skills, as well as such important qualities as perseverance, scrupulousness, hard work, imagination, attention, imagination, memory and others. Therefore, this occupation cannot be ignored.