Preschool art series, continued . . .
Once upon a time, I decided to avoid cleaning the house by letting my oldest get it a little messier!
That’s where this flour activity started.
I’ve actually been working on this particular post for a while. Unfortunately, my kids have been taking turns getting sick. My youngest was just starting to sleep through the night before this, so I’ve been missing the extra sleep.
She’s doing better now, though, and I’m starting to catch up on life.
While I’m doing that, my kids have gotten to play with their flour trays a lot this week. They love this activity, so it usually keeps them occupied for 20-30 minutes with only minor supervision.
Clean up, on the other hand, takes a little more work!
This is definitely a messy activity, but it’s been a fun way to add some sensory play. Plus, I’ve found that the flour is surprisingly easy to
sweep or vacuum up afterwards. Most of the time, the kitchen needs sweeping anyway. That makes it easy to pull out a little extra mess, knowing that we’ll finish with a clean up party.
You will need:
- Several cups of flour
- A cup or two of a small grain rice, barley, lentils, etc)
You can just use flour, but I used leftover uncooked rice to add texture. I use nice flour for baking, but we use the cheapest flour at the store for this activity.
Mix your ingredients together in a 9″x13″ pan. Then, add:
- Measuring spoons
- A funnel
- A small bucket (or measuring cup
- A small sieve or colander
You can also add small beads or bolts to hide in the flour. My kids have added miniature trucks, plastic animals, and other other small toys. We do avoid fabric and cloth toys.
I supervise things a little, to make sure the kids don’t empty the flour onto the floor. They treat it like an indoor sandbox, though, and they keep the flour in their pans most of the time. My oldest especially loves digging around
in the flour to find his bolts.
When they’re done, I empty the flour from the trays into a jar and save it for the next time.
Then we sweep off the table and vacuum or sweep the floor. That flour gets gets mixed up with dirt, so I dump it in the compost.
Bonus baking activity:
Want to add a small cooking project to your morning? You’ll have plenty of flour left in the bag, which you can use to make tortillas or biscuits.
For tortillas, I improvise a little, but generally follow this recipe from Taste of Home: https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/homemade-tortillas
- 2 C. flour
- ½ t. salt
- 3 T. olive oil
- ¾ C. water
Mix the flour, salt, and olive oil. Add the water gradually, stirring until mixed well. Knead the dough lightly, and it let rest for 10-20 minutes. (This resting time helps to make the dough stretchy and less sticky.)
Then divide into 8 sections and roll the sections out into circles. Heat a skillet and toast the tortillas one at a time, a couple minutes per side.
These will probably be smaller and thicker than store tortillas, but they work great for quesadillas, wraps, and pbj roll-ups.
Note: for other baking project, check out this list of picture books about food.
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