Sensory Play with Foam Dough

Have you tried Incredible Foam Dough? It’s the latest “craze” in modeling materials for children and it’s easy, affordable and fun for ages 3 and up.

This wonderful example of foam dough art was made by a teacher from Long Beach Day Nursery who applied foam dough to her desktop, making this delightful 3-D image.

Foam Dough is soft to touch, and makes a great substitute for traditional play dough and clay. Unlike other clays and dough, it’s virtually mess-free and can be re-used again and again. And the fact that it never dries out is enough to make teachers say “WOW, REALLY?”. But trust me, it’s true, you can even leave it out on the counter for a days and days and its consistency will not alter one little bit. Moreover, foam dough is the perfect sensory play material and exercises important cognitive skills as well as eye-hand-brain coordination. Sensory stimulation is so important in early childhood education, and this is one new sensory play product that you’re sure to love.

Purchase Colorations® IncredibleFoam™ Dough from Discount School Supply in a variety of colors and quantities. Foam dough affords children the ability to make decisions, solve problems and perfect for open ended, self directed play.

Amazing! It’s true, you can actually leave it out of the plastic bag and it stays the same moisture. If you like what you make and want to keep it, Incredible Foam is designed to be used again and again. Take it out of its container, mold, it mash it, play with it. If you like what you make and want to keep it. When you mix colors together, you get new colors!

Foam Paint is Back!

After several months of not having Foam Paint available, you can now order it again! Sorry for the delay while the aerosol containers were being improved. You'll find it on the Discount School Supply website, under item #8WWBFP and coming again in the next catalog.

Meanwhile, here are a few beautiful Foam Paint samples to remind you of how beautiful this paint is. You can download and print an article on Foam Paint applications called "Messy Art and the Power of Paint" in the articles section at right.

Have fun - and Happy Spring!
Anna

Another Gallery Wall Idea

From the Southern California Kindergarten Conference comes this wonderful display concept that makes children's artwork a real standout. First mount artwork onto black construction paper, then onto colored butcher paper. This style of mounting will not only bring out your students artwork with big bright colors, it can also be a group project. And the clean up is easy!

Art Gallery Activity

Inexpensive photo frames make a colorful Wall Gallery and allow you to easily change out artwork. These were purchased from Ikea for six dollars each, but Target, the 99cents store, and other value oriented retailers carry similar bargains. Make the project even better by decorating your own frames using simple and affordable beads, pipe cleaners and lace.

It's important to display artwork tastefully to show off its value. Mounting or framing the simplest artwork brings out its aesthetic appeal. You may even know a woodworker or retired hobbyist who could handcraft simple wooden frames for your Gallery Wall. Don't forget when you display art to make sure everyone’s artwork is included.

Personalized Placemats

I stopped in my tracks when I saw these super adorable placemats at the Hollywood Los Feliz JCC. They gave me such a smile! What is it about these clever placemats that draws you in to take a closer look? Is it the playful expression on the children's faces? Or the colorful freestyle painting behind each photo? Or is it the solid construction paper background that frames it all and makes it pop out from the page? I think it's "all of the above"! By using a laminator or clear contact paper to cover each picture, you can use your placemats for the whole year.

Try this sometime and you'll discover a clever new way to identify each child's place setting for lunchtime or snacks. A big thank you to the creative preschool staff of Hollywood Los Feliz Jewish Community Center in Los Angeles.

Alphabet Bulletin Board

Here's an easy and creative approach to an alphabet bulletin board, thanks to Maimonedes Academy in Beverly Hills, California. Using large cardboard letters, children first paint each letter a separate color, then search for magazine images that begin with each letter and glue them on. This is a nice language building activity that combines creativity with decision making and fine motor development. Lots of cognitive development takes place as children search through magazines and decide which images start with various letters and which images will fit on their letter (some will be way too big!). In most classrooms, you will be able to assign one letter per child.

Have fun, and please send me YOUR ideas on building literacy skills through art. I'd love to hear from and post your ideas for others to see.
Email me!