Blogging From A to Z Challenge: P is for Play Dough

Happy sunny Saturday! In case this is your first stop at the blog this month, I'm participating in the annual Blogging from A to Z Challenge. My theme this year is 26 Super Fun Learning Activities You Can Do From Home. That's right, I'm conjuring up 26 "educational" ideas to keep you busy while you're safe at home. But don't get too hung up on the word "educational"—so far, they've all be fun activities. I promise.

Just to recap, I kicked off the challenge with Art for the letter A. Next up was B was for Baking. My sister and I did some chemistry for the letter "C," and I rounded off the first week with a family dance off. "E" was for exercise (which was way more fun than you think) and "F" was all about family. We did some gardening for "G," celebrated Poetry Month and the letter "H" by writing haikus. And of course, "I" was for Invention. Week two ended with juggling. We started week three of the challenge with knitting, on Tuesday we talked about learning a new language, and on Wednesday we did some fun math. It was fun, right? 

For "N" I linked to some nature activities and yesterday, we talked about Origami. Make anything interesting? I think today is going to be a nice day, but until it warms up, I've got a great "P" activity.  

P is for Play Dough

It doesn't seem to matter how old you are—playing with play dough is fun. Even Grandpa likes to make things out of it whenever Grandma whips up a batch for me and my sister.

Yep, that's right, Grandma makes her own "play dough"—in a variety of colours. She says the secret is canola oil, which makes the dough pliable.

And that's important because you want to be able to "create" with it. Of course that's today's educational part of the activity...creativity. But what can you create?

Well, if you've ever been in one of the writing workshops put on by the author of the Superman Duffy books—Dawn Ius—then you know that one of the cool things you can create is a character. A character you can use in your next story.

It sounds strange, but when you start mixing the colours and just let your imagination run wild, you'd be surprised by the characters you can create.

And as you create, you have to make creative decisions—like, why your character's hair might be green, for instance, or why you chose to give your spider seven legs instead of eight. Maybe your character ate too much spinach and her whole body is turning green? Or that spider might be a superhero that lost his leg in a fight with...well, what is a spider enemy? Anyway, you get the ideas.

After you create your play dough character, you can share it with your family—give it a name, and be prepared to share a little about how it lives or who its hangs out with. You can use all of that information for when you write a story about your character.

Many of my stories were written about characters I created with play dough.

Want to make your own? You're in luck! I asked my grandma for the recipe on our Skype call last night and Mom printed it out this morning. I've shared it here, but you can also download this activity book from the Alberta Canola Producers Commission website, which has this recipe plus a bunch of other activity ideas.

Gotta jet! Don't forget the Blogging From A to Z Challenge takes a break tomorrow, but I'll be back Monday with the letter "Q."

Happy creating—and stay safe!

~ Chase Superman Duffy