Cranberry Day

I needed some ideas to entertain the kids during our day off from school last week and decided on a Cranberry theme!  First, the kids 'experimented' with some cranberries - checking out if they float or sink and why, bouncing them and cutting them open to investigate the inside.

 Cranberry Playdough



Next, we boiled half a bag of fresh cranberries and then strained the cranberry mush out to make some 'cranberry water' for playdough.

We used the strained 'cranberry water' in a stove top playdough recipe.

2 cups flour

1 cup salt

1Tbsp oil

1 Tbsp cream of Tartar

2 cups 'cranberry water'

Mix all ingredients in a pot on medium heat and stir until it starts to form a ball.  Remove from pot and knead.

Here is our naturally colored playdough!

 

And here is the Cranberry Bakery - Open for Business!

 Then we read the book Cranberry Thanksgiving.

.....and used the recipe at the back of the book to make some

"Grandmother's Famous Cranberry Bread"

 (we modified the recipe by using whole wheat flour and walnuts instead of raisins)

Yum!

Cranberry Day activities found at Superheros and Princesses

Rainbow Kool-Aid Playdough

A Rainbow of Kool-Aid Playdough!

I have always followed a homemade playdough recipe that uses the stovetop and been quite happy with the results.  This recipe, however, uses boiling water and is super easy.  I will not go back to using the stovetop to make playdough again!  Adding the Kool-Aid makes the playdough smell soooo yummy and colors the dough without having to fiddle with food coloring.

This is our new favorite homemade playdough recipe.

You have to try it out!!!

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup salt

1 pkg Kool-Aid Unsweetened Drink Mix, any flavor

1 Tbsp Cream of Tartar

1 cup boiling water

1 1/2 Tbsp oil

wax or parchment paper

Directions

Mix the first 4 ingredients in a large bowl. Add oil to the boiling water in a measuring cup and then pour into the dry ingredients.  Stir with a fork until most of the dry ingredients have been combined, then mix with your hands.

Put your playdough onto the wax paper and knead, knead, knead until it has become smooth and well blended - then start playing!

Store in a plastic bag or airtight container in the refrigerator.

There was a lot of smelling going on while making the dough!

The kids loved watching the colors come out when we added the boiling water.

{of course be super careful when using the hot water around the kiddos!}

Here is the result!

A rainbow of Kool-Aid playdough!

As you can see, the yellow didn't really turn out yellow and the green package of Kool-Aid really makes a pink strawberry-kiwi blend, oops!

The flavors that continued to smell the best and the strongest after a few days of play were the basics - cherry, orange, lemon and grape.

The only 'complaints' I would have with this recipe is that it is a tad 'oily'.  Perhaps cutting back on the oil would prevent some oil marks left on the counters after play.  But, the oil may be what makes this dough so smooth so I would be hesitant to cut it back.  Also, Cream of Tartar is a rather expensive item to buy at our local supermarket - oh how I miss the great prices of the Candian store 'The Bulk Barn'.  I will have to stock up on crafting and baking supplies our next trip north of the border.  I have seen a similar recipe that omits the Cream of Tartar.....I wonder how that would turn out?  I will have to try that the next time.

Idea from Meet the Dubiens.

Scented Play Dough

Since I am all about Christmas smells lately I found a recipe for chocolate play dough (made with a bunch of cocoa) and vanilla sugar play dough (vanilla and sparkles).  While the dough smelled delicious it was a little on the dry side.  The kids, however, thought it was the most fabulous thing EVER!  They set to work molding mugs of hot chocolate, cocoa kids, sugar cookies etc.

Here is Matthew helping mommy make the dough.

And Jillian smelling it!

Here is the vanilla sugar dough.  You can't see the sparkles in the pictures but they looked really pretty and gave the dough a festive feel.

I may have to remake our salt dough (from a previous post) and make cinnamon salt dough to add to our smells of Christmas.