Salt Dough

Difficulties with Wood

Children loved working with the Salt Dough. At first, the dough was very hard and cold, as we took it out of the fridge. To the children’s excitement, with the very first touches, it quickly became sticky and stretchy. One of the groups I worked with seemed to be on the same wavelength.

As soon as the children sat down, they began to experiment with the dough's stretchiness and stickiness. Some made the dough ‘rain’ down as they squeezed it between their fingers, while others held the entire piece up high, watching it slowly droop and plop down. Others still, squished the dough with the palms of their hands and watched how it stretches when they try to ‘unglue’ their

At some point there was a small competition between the children about who can stretch the dough widest without breaking it, using either fingers or hands.

N wanted to test how resilient the dough is when you pull it up with an object. He was excited to find out he had to use a lot of strength to ‘fight’ the dough’s grip to the board, and how eventually he would win and the dough would stretch up high and finally break.

T continued this experiment by wrapping dough around his entire hand. He said he really liked the coldness and the jellylike sensation when he pats his dough covered hand.

We notice that, through his senses he is connecting to the conditions of the dough in temperature and texture. He experimented with moving his fingers inside the dough and then ‘rescuing’ his hand out of the dough’s grip.

Another group of children weren’t sure what to do with the cold dough at first. Instead of touching it, they turned it upside down and squished it between their work boards and the table. This exploration led to an exciting discovery of making imprints on the dough’s surface. The table cover left many little square imprints on the dough. The children started feeling the design with their palms. And this stimulated further inquiry into imprints: of hands, fingers and later, rollers. As J used the boards, he explains,

“You squish it and it turns into squares. It feels bumpy. I want to make some more…”

The next group noticed that if you slap the dough, it makes an interesting jelly-like sound. One of the boys began theorizing about the reason for this sound. He experimented with slapping his work board and the table and comparing all three sounds. This conversation led into a drumming session by some of the children. B wanted to make a food bowl in the same way she did using clay previously. Yet the dough would just flop down and the sides wouldn’t stay up as she wanted. She shared her wondering about why this is happening, and then decided to make a flat plate instead.

Once children were introduced to a variety of tools, they experimented with cutting and scraping the dough, as well as making patterns and designs using cutters, rollers and sticks.

Children noticed that salt dough was very different to clay and Nendo. The objects and design they were able to make with it had to be more flat. They particularly enjoyed the sensory experience it offered and were looking forward to baking

Chapter 3: Water

“The supreme goodness is like water. It benefits all things without contention. In dwelling, it stays grounded. In being, it flows to depths. In expression, it is honest. In confrontation, it stays gentle. In governance it does not control. In action, it aligns to timing.

It is content with its nature, and therefore cannot be faulted.”

Connecting with Water

A enjoyed touching water on a piece of paper. “I can draw with water.”

Yoko K- Is there any change that you can see about water?

A: Look! Water became cute!

Then, A started drawing a line using water. For a while, I.xx was watching what she was doing.

YK- If you do that, can you draw something?

I started dropping and drawing a line with water. Since water spread out, it became a big circle. Ian exclaims, “Wow, water became a circle.”

YK- Wow, you can make a circle with water. Water can do so many things. Then, he was trying to put a piece of paper on it and said, “Water circle just came out.”