This month's Virtual Book Club Author is Amy Krouse Rosenthal. Below you will find a blog hop full of great activities and crafts inspired by Rosenthal's books. But first, I can hardly wait to tell you all about our Cookie Dough Play Dough that we made inspired by Rosenthal's popular book One Smart Cookie: Bite-Size Lessons for the School Years and Beyond.
In One Smart Cookie, Amy Krouse Rosenthal uses the example of baking cookies to teach the definitions of important character traits. For example:
"COMPROMISE means she wanted to make really big cookies, but he wanted make teeny-tiny cookies, so they thought about it together and decided to make medium-size cookies."
The picture book is illustrated with lovely watercolor paintings and Rosenthal is witty and plays upon words in her typical style.
Unfortunately, I am the exact sort of cookie baker that One Smart Cookie teaches children NOT to be.
But, I can make play dough! So, I decided to make Cookie Dough Play Dough and use the activity as a chance to go over some of the words and concepts from One Smart Cookie.
Predictably, I flunked the Smart Cookie test right away when I realized that I didn't have a crucial ingredient for my normal homemade play dough recipe. Rosenthal would call that being UNPREPARED and UNORGANIZED.
What Rosenthal doesn't mention though is that being UNPREPARED can actually end well when you stumble upon a creative idea due to your lack of preparation. I stumbled upon a no salt recipe for play dough made out of oatmeal (Skin Therapy Play Dough) that makes the PERFECT Cookie Dough Play Dough!
How to Make Cookie Dough Play Dough
If you missed it, here is a link to my recipe for my Skin Therapy Play Dough the basic play dough recipe behind Cookie Dough Play Dough. Be sure to add the optional vanilla and cocoa powder or a bit of cinnamon to make your play dough smell like cookie dough.
I love this easy recipe because it has no salt, involves no cooking, and doesn't leave streaks on the table.
To make your Cookie Dough Play Dough look even more like real cookies you can use a hole punch to make some "chocolate chips" out of dark brown craft foam or "chocolate candies" if you have several sheets of brightly colored foam.
I found that a cheap dollar hole punch worked but took a lot of time and effort. I purchased a slightly more expensive hole puncher that could punch through 15 sheets of paper at a time and had no trouble punching holes in the foam.
Add your chocolate chips and some kid safe kitchen utensils or toys, and you will be set for hours of pretend play.
My preschooler spent hours this week rolling and cutting out cookies and placing them on a miniature baking sheet. He then baked them in his pretend kitchen's oven.
We had a lot of fun smelling the cookies and pretending to eat them.
Using Cookie Dough Play Dough as an Activity for One Smart Cookie
If you are using this play dough as an activity to help children understand One Smart Cookie, I would recommend looking through the book and selecting three to four words that can be easily acted out with the play dough.
Older kids could work on learning to read and spell the chosen words while acting out the definitions. Younger children could concentrate on just learning what the words mean.
Some suggested words to act out would be: Compromise, Contribute, Humble, and Kindness.
Link-up to The Virtual Book Club for Kids
Now, you can link-up any of your original activities and crafts inspired by Amy Krouse Rosenthal's books. Not only will your post appear here but also on each of these fabulous blogs:
Toddler Approved - Rainy Day Mum - Adventures in Reading with Kids - 3 Dinosaurs - Royal Baloo - The Educators' Spin On It - Inspiration Laboratories - Pleasantest Thing - Edventures with Kids - Two Big Two Little - Playing With Words 365 - Kitchen Counter Chronicles - Outlaw Mom - Mommy and Me Book Club - Crafty Moms Share - No Twiddle Twaddle - The Good Long Road - Ready. Set. Read 2 Me - Reading Confetti - Mama Smiles - Juggling with Kids- Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas - Creekside Learning - Creative Family Fun - The Usual Mayhem - Teach Preschool - PlayDrMom - CraftoArt - Here Come the Girls - Being a Conscious Parent - Smiling like Sunshine - Crayon Freckles - Train Up a Child
If you link-up don't forget to grab a button (on my sidebar) and like the Virtual Book Club for Kids Facebook page.
Thanks for stopping by today. I know that I enjoyed reading Amy Krouse Rosenthal's books, and I'm looking forward to reading all of your awesome activities.
Bethany
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