Dough modeling lessons for 2 year olds. Making with children from colored salt dough

It is convenient to sculpt flat, slightly convex figures from the dough. This property of the dough can be used to create bas-reliefs from it - convex images on a plane.

Material and tools: a board sprinkled with flour, a rolling pin, a knife, a sharpened pencil, a glass of water, a thin brush, a cloth or sponge, a little vegetable oil.

Dough: flour - 1 cup, salt - 1 cup, vegetable oil - a tablespoon, water - half a cup.

Mix all ingredients and knead well on a board to obtain a soft, homogeneous mass. Place the dough in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours. After this, you can sculpt from the dough. Place the remaining dough after modeling in a plastic bag and store in the refrigerator until next time.

The techniques for modeling from dough are the same as for modeling from plasticine.

Colored dough

Part of the modeling mass can be left unpainted (it has a light beige color), and part can be painted in different colors using gouache paints. If you sculpt from colored dough, you won't have to color the finished products. This is especially important if small children are sculpting, for whom it is still difficult to accurately hit a certain place with a brush.

You will need unpainted salt dough and a set of gouache or acrylic paints. Paints must be in a paste form. If they are dry, add a little water to the jars and wait until the paint softens.

Take a piece of dough in your left hand, such that it fits freely in your fist. Make a dimple in the middle of this piece. Using the index finger of your right hand, scoop a piece of paste from the jar and place it in this recess.

Close the edges of the dent so that the paint is inside.

Roll the dough ball up and down between your palms. Your hands will get a little dirty, but it doesn’t matter - the paint can be easily washed off with water. To prevent the dough from sticking to your hands too much, moisten them with sunflower oil.

After rolling out a long sausage, fold it in half and roll again. Repeat this operation until the “marble” stains disappear and the color becomes uniform. If after adding paint the dough becomes too soft, add a little salt and flour to it.

Prepare a set of colored mass in this way. Leave part of the dough uncolored - it will act as white. Store each color of dough in a separate plastic bag or in a yogurt jar with a tight-fitting lid.

Pieces of colored dough can be mixed, like paints, and achieve the shade you want. To do this, you just need to take two pieces of dough and knead them together until. until the dough is smooth:

Blue + white = light blue;

White + red = pink;

Blue + pink = purple;

Blue + yellow = green;

Yellow + red = orange;

Green + red = brown;

Green + blue = emerald.

And don't forget to stock up on flesh-colored dough! In order to make such a dough, you need to add a little yellow to the light pink one.

The excess colored dough that remains after modeling can be mixed into one lump so that it does not dry out. The result will be an “incomprehensible”, most likely gray-brown, color. But he can also be useful for something.

You can make paintings and toys from colored dough

One of the most effective activities for developing fine motor skills is modeling. According to experts, sculpting should begin as early as possible. In this article I will present our favorite exercises.

When reading materials about how interesting modeling is for children, do not forget that most children aged 1 year are conservative and love established order. They have only recently gotten used to the idea that all toys are soft or hard. Plasticine is a completely new consistency for a baby, which threatens the existence of everything familiar. At least go and check all the items again, in case some of them have the consistency of plasticine.

In addition, any creative activity requires not only the formation of a skill, but also enjoyment of the result. This requires awareness of the results and one’s capabilities, which manifests itself very weakly in the second year of life. Therefore, if you decide to take up modeling with a child under two years old, do not expect much jubilation and joy.

The simplest element, “sticks” (cylinders), is mastered by most children in the third year of life. Some cope with the cylinder only at three years. After mastering the cylinders, you can start working on the balls.

The book “Plasticine Beads” contains 8 pages of exercises for gluing balls. A one-year-old baby can handle them quite well. For a two-year-old, you can make the tasks more difficult by offering regular plasticine. It is more elastic and sculpting with it will be more useful for the development of finger motor skills. Classic plasticine produced by Luch (Chemical Plant) is considered one of the best.

“Plasticine Oranges” contains 8 pages of exercises for creating all kinds of balls:

Happy sculpting!

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Modeling is a very fun educational activity that is loved by many kids. A step-by-step recipe for salted modeling dough for children will help parents make with their own hands a natural, absolutely safe, inexpensive plastic material that will be an excellent alternative to plasticine and popular modeling mass such as play-doh.

Salted play dough for children recipe:

What is salt dough? How is modeling useful for children?

Dough made from flour and table salt is an incredibly plastic material, and modeling from it is an art known to our distant ancestors. Folk craftswomen mastered testoplasty, or bioceramics (today handicrafts have such beautiful names) to decorate their homes and bring home comfort to them. They made crafts from salt dough without baking and painted them. These figurines had a symbolic meaning and were given to loved ones. The children played with them like toys. Initially, the plastic mass recipe included only three components: flour, boiled salt and cold water.

Today, salt dough is once again popular. Many parents and teachers of preschool institutions prefer this material to plasticine and play-doh plastic mass, because:

• Salted play dough for children recipe is very simple, anyone can master it.
• The components for preparing the plastic mass are inexpensive and accessible. Flour, salt, water, food coloring and other ingredients will cost less than plasticine.
• For young children, you can use a mass recipe that contains only natural edible ingredients. There will be no reason to worry if the baby decides to try what the dough tastes like or swallows a piece of it.
• Salt dough does not stick to your fingers and does not stain them. This is a very pliable and soft material, which can be used to form figures. strength even for kids.
• Properly prepared and kneaded salt dough dries, hardens, and does not crack. Crafts made from it can be used as souvenirs and Christmas tree decorations. They can be played like toys.
• Using natural coloring agents (beet juice, for example), food coloring, puff pastry can be given absolutely any color.

Recipes for salted play dough

Recipes for salted play dough for children are constantly being improved. Some people prefer to add to the material not only water, flour and salt, but also some other components, for example, starch, gelatin, vegetable oil, PVA glue or dry wallpaper glue. But the main thing here is not to overdo it! Buttered dough, for example, can leave greasy marks on hands and clothes, and the synthetic glue makes the material only suitable for children 5 years and older, who definitely won't eat it.

Parents are offered two recipes for salt dough for creativity with preschoolers and junior schoolchildren, step by step with photos.

Recipe 1: A simple recipe for salted play dough

Ingredients:

wheat flour – 1 cup;
fine table salt (Extra) – 1 cup;
cold water – ½ cup;

How to knead the modeling mass:

Recipe 2: Recipe for salted dough with starch

For making miniature crafts, a mass with starch is more suitable; it will give it additional elasticity.

Ingredients:

wheat flour – 1/2 cup;
table salt – 1 glass;
cold water – ½ cup;
starch - ½ cup.

How to knead starchy salted dough for modeling:

Craft ideas for kids using dough

As a rule, ideas for crafts made from salt dough arise directly during the modeling process. But if they have dried up, you can study one or another interesting master class from the books by V. A. Khomenko “Salt Dough Step by Step” or A. Firsova “Miracles from Salt Dough.” Schemes and step-by-step instructions with photos and videos for crafts are available on the Internet.

Foot and palm prints on the dough, stuck on cardboard and inserted into a frame, look very original.

For the New Year, it’s fun to make cute Christmas tree decorations with your child, color them, decorate them with beads, sequins, and sprinkle them with sparkles. A snowflake, a gnome, a hut, a bell, or a symbol of the year, for example, a monkey, can hang on the tree. As an example, here is a photo of a craft made from salted modeling dough, made together with a 4-year-old preschooler.

Salt dough - a recipe for crafts. Video.

Modeling dough from salt and flour is a type of creative activity that a child can begin to master literally from the age of one. By manipulating with tactile pieces of colored dough, he is not just having fun. Modeling promotes the development of fine motor skills, imagination and memory in preschoolers and primary schoolchildren, and helps to form an understanding of the properties of objects.

Tactile contact with salt dough and the actual process of making crafts have a calming effect on the baby’s psyche, and the end result causes a storm of positive emotions.

Working at home with children and developing them is a pleasure if the activity is exciting and has a lot of advantages. Crafts made from salt dough are just what you need, because it is a pleasant pastime for mom and a useful exercise for little children’s hands. In addition, modeling from salt dough is very affordable: the ingredients can be found in every home.

How to make salt dough

There are many recipes for such a dough, and to make a plastic mass with your own hands, choose the one that suits you, but first read some clarifications:

• flour - without additives (not “pancake”);
• salt – fine, “Extra” (not rock, not iodized);
• if the dough is colored, it needs to be divided into parts during the process;
• dyes - beet juice, spinach, raspberry, blueberry juice, dry food coloring, gouache.

Recipe for simple and colored dough

Ingredients for a simple test:

• 200 gr. flour;
• 200 gr. salt;
• 125 ml ice water.

Preparation:

1. Mix flour and salt in a large bowl.
2. Add water in small portions, kneading the dough until smooth.
3. Place it in a bag and put it in the refrigerator to rest for half an hour.

Ingredients for color dough:

• flour - 300 gr.;
• salt - 300 gr.;
• cold water - 200 ml;
• sunflower oil - 1 tbsp. spoon;
• dyes.

If the dye is liquid:

• mix flour with salt;
• add vegetable oil;
• add water in portions, knead the plastic dough;
• divide the mass into several parts and mix the dye into each part, knead until a uniform color is obtained;
• put in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

If the dye is dry:

• divide all ingredients into equal parts;
• each dye must be dissolved in approximately 1-2 tablespoons of water from the total volume;
• mix flour, salt, butter, add water and dye, knead thoroughly;
• We do this with each color;
• put it in a bag and put it in the refrigerator for half an hour.

Little tricks

Experienced housewives know that the more flexible the dough, the more elegant the crafts are. To do this, vegetable oil is added to the mixture. It can be replaced with hand cream in the same amount.

For thin parts, you can make a special dough by adding a little starch or wallpaper glue: 1-2 tbsp. Mix dry spoons with water and add to the mixture of flour and salt.

The dough can be stored in the refrigerator for 1-2 weeks.

Testoplasty - where to start

Modeling from salt dough is an interesting process that will bring pleasure to everyone. The dough turns out so soft and pliable that you don’t want to let go of it. Therefore, for some needlewomen, dough crafts - testoplasty - are not just periodic activities with children, but a real hobby.

The youngest children can be introduced to dough as the first material for modeling. The dough is superior to plasticine because it is harmless to children. If a young researcher has tasted the mixture, do not worry, the dough does not contain foreign impurities or harmful additives. The child can do whatever he wants with the dough: knead it in his hands, pinch off pieces, roll it into balls, sausages, cut it with a knife. Such manipulations are useful for fine motor skills.

For children aged 2-3 years, simple crafts are enough. First, these are flat dough shapes that are cut out using cookie cutters, round lids, or a clay knife.

Children over 4 years old are ready for crafts that are more complex than just cutting with a shape. These can be Christmas tree decorations, three-dimensional animal figurines, vegetables, fruits, small toys as gifts for friends. Using salt dough, you can make wonderful counting material for teaching mathematics in games.

Salt dough toys for children

You can start with simple flat products. Let these be cookies for dolls or other toys; they will last a long time and fit perfectly into a toy tea party. These cookies can be made right away from colored dough, or they can be made from white dough and then painted. You need to glue small parts to the main product and connect the parts of the craft to each other using a damp brush: the parts to be joined are moistened with a brush and glued together.

"Ginger cookie"

Making salty cookies step by step:

• Roll out a small piece of dough with a rolling pin into a thin layer (5-7 mm) on the table;
• using cookie cutters or plasticine, cut out figures;
• we decorate the figures with seeds, beads, small buttons;
• You can place small dough decorations on top of the cookies - circles, hearts, flowers.

Application "Caterpillar"

Using the same principle, you can make an applique craft from colored dough on thick cardboard. We will need a sheet of cardboard, dough of different colors (yellow, pink, blue, green), a plasticine knife.

Execution steps:

• take pieces of yellow (head), pink and blue, roll out to a thickness of 7-10 mm;
• cut out circles from dough;
• grease the cardboard with PVA glue, glue the circles (the body and head of the caterpillar);
• cut out eyes and decorations for the caterpillar with a knife (beads, flowers, bows - optional);
• using a toothpick, draw a smile, make a pattern on the caterpillar (dots, notches, waves);
• glue the eyes and decorations onto the caterpillar’s ​​body using a wet brush;
• cut out leaves and grass from green dough and glue them to the bottom of the cardboard;
• we complement the picture with elements to suit your taste: the sun, flowers in the grass, legs for a caterpillar;
• dry the craft in air or on a radiator.

Christmas decorations

On New Year's Eve, you can make your own Christmas tree decorations from salt dough. This is a reason to start a pleasant tradition - every year to make a new toy with your child. Even a simple toy in the shape of a star or a heart, or maybe some kind of animal (symbol of the year), decorated with beads, bows, and ribbon is already a masterpiece. You can make a snowman, a Christmas tree, or Santa Claus's mitten.

New Year's decorations are made on the same principle as cookies. We need to roll out the dough and cut out the shapes of the desired shape. If you don't have a stencil, simply cut out a sample from cardboard, place it on the dough, and then trace it with a knife. Don't forget to make a hole for the ribbon. Decorate the toy now or after drying, paint it, varnish it, and it will serve you for many years.

After the child has learned to decorate flat figures, you can begin to master three-dimensional figures. To make the crafts light, a ball of crumpled paper or foil is placed inside the product, which is “covered” with dough. This technique reduces drying time.

Before you move on to sculpting three-dimensional figures, teach your child to roll sausages, roll them into snails, make balls of different sizes, shape them into cubes, and flatten them into flat cakes. These basic skills are necessary for independently sculpting even the simplest animal figures.

Making a hedgehog

A hedgehog made from white salted dough can become the first three-dimensional figure made by a child’s hands. Let's sculpt a hedgehog step by step:

1. We roll a ball out of foil, and then form the body of a dough hedgehog around the ball - a figure similar to a pear. If you don't put foil inside the body, drying will take a long time and the hedgehog will be heavy.
2. We make eyes and a nose: you can take black dough for the nose and peppercorns for the eyes, you can make everything from white dough, and paint it with paint after drying.
3. Now we take nail scissors (adult help is needed) and make needles for the hedgehog. We start with the head, then cut the dough all over the body to make sharp triangles. Just cut the dough and you will understand how to do it. If you do the rows in a checkerboard pattern, it will be more beautiful.
4. When our hedgehog is dressed in quills, he can be sent to dry and then painted.

Let's make a lamb

You can try making a figurine of a lamb or sheep together with a 5-6 year old child. For this craft you will need the simplest white dough. Next, follow the step-by-step instructions:

1. We make 4 balls - these are the legs of a lamb, and place them next to each other in the shape of a square.
2. We make a flat cake from a piece of dough, roll a tight ball out of foil, and place it in this flat cake. We “tighten” the foil ball with mass, we get the body of our lamb, and then we put it on the legs.
3. Roll a piece of dough into a ball - this is the head, glue it to the right place.
4. We make eyes from two small koloboks and place them on the head.
5. We roll two sausages, twist them into snails - these are the horns of a lamb, attach them to the head and body with a wet brush.
6. We make ears: we fasten a dough cake at one end, we get something like a petal, we do the same with the second, glue them to the head.
7. Finally, you need to make curls. To do this, roll many, many small balls (0.5 cm in diameter), place them on the body (back, sides), and flatten them with your finger. We do this until the entire craft is covered with “curls”.
8. The workpiece is ready. All that remains is to dry it, paint it and varnish it.

Making counting material for children

Dough figures can be used for beauty, as a gift, or you can make counting material for doing math with children in a playful way. To do this, you will have to work hard and stick a lot of objects of the same shape, at least within ten, but how fun it will be later! You can sculpt vegetables, fruits, confectionery, toy sausages, loaves, mushrooms - whatever your imagination allows. Here are just a few examples.

Beads "Mushrooms"

In order to stick mushrooms, we take ordinary salted dough, roll the sausage, cut it into small cylinders - these are the legs of the mushroom. Now roll a small ball and press the dough from one edge, giving it a hat shape (you can use a pencil).

We make 10-15 such “leg-hat” pairs. Then we make a hole in the legs of such a size that a cord can fit through it; you can use a wooden kebabs skewer or an awl. We connect the caps with the legs with water, dry them in the oven, and paint them.

Such mushrooms can be strung on a string, or you can stick skewers into a piece of foam plastic or a cork board and string them onto the resulting rod.

Vegetables and fruits

Making vegetables or fruits from dough for games and activities is no more difficult than fungi. Choose crops according to your taste and performance capabilities: cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes, corn or even cabbage. You can use colored dough, or you can make it from white dough and paint it after drying.

Playing with your baby with such toys is a pleasure. You can feed the little animals, divide vegetables between them, and at the same time learn to count, put them in baskets - one more, the other less, you can come up with a lot of games. The most important thing is that the child will not even think that you are trying to teach him, because the game is fun.

From the dough you can make an educational lacing toy - this is a plate with holes into which the child inserts the end of a lace or rope. The toy is useful for developing fine motor skills.

Making such a craft is not difficult. Roll out a layer of white dough about 8 mm thick, take an oval-shaped object (for example, slightly flattened tape, but other options are possible) slightly smaller than your palm. Then, using a stick or pencil, we make an arc-shaped indentation, marking the ladybug’s head, and draw a straight line dividing its wings. Using a felt-tip pen cap, we make dot-holes - the excess dough falls into the cap, and we get a hole. 3-5 holes on each wing is enough. We dry the future lacing, then paint it. The toy is ready.

How to dry dough crafts

Each finished craft needs to be dried. How long it takes depends on the drying method. There are several drying options, choose the one that is convenient based on the size of the product or the availability of time.

Choosing a method for drying products:

1. Air dry on a flat surface. It will take a long time to wait for the result; it takes a day for 1 mm of the thickness of the craft. Indentations may appear where the dough comes into contact with the surface, and sometimes you cannot turn the craft over. This option is suitable for small flat products.
2. Drying on a radiator. This method is only possible during the heating season. Drying on a radiator takes less time than drying in air. The process takes from 1 to 2 days, depending on the thickness of the product.
3. Baking in the oven is a relatively quick method, suitable for large products. You need to dry the craft on a baking sheet.

If there are sudden changes in temperature in the oven, the product may crack, so you need to start drying with the door open, gradually increasing the temperature:

• at 50 degrees - 1 hour with the door open;
• then at 75 degrees - 1 hour, the door is closed until drying is complete;
• then at 100-120 degrees - 1 hour;
• complete drying at 150 degrees – 30 minutes;
• open the door and leave the product to cool.

Combined drying is also possible. First, the craft is dried in the open air or in a radiator, and then in the oven. Suitable for large products.

The time and temperature for baking the craft in the oven depends on the color of the baking sheet and the thickness of the product. The article indicates the temperature for a light baking sheet; on a black one, make an adjustment - 20 degrees lower. The drying time is indicated for products up to 2 cm thick; if the craft is thicker, the time increases by about 1.5 times.

After drying, you need to lightly tap the product: if the sound is loud, the craft has dried. A dull sound indicates that the dough inside is wet, it needs to be dried, otherwise the craft will begin to collapse.

Painting of finished products

When the salt dough craft is completely dry, you can start painting it. Paints can be acrylic, watercolor or gouache.

Acrylic paints adhere well, do not smudge, and do not leave marks after drying. Watercolor and gouache paints need to be fixed with varnish after drying. You can also varnish any product if you wish - it is durable, beautiful, and looks more elegant.

Dough modeling is a fun way to spend time with children. After all, they not only sculpt, but also cook: they can experiment with the flour mixture in the process of measuring and mixing ingredients, and then observe the metamorphoses that occur with the finished product when temperatures change during the drying process.

In addition, crafts made from salt dough are harmless to children, they do not contain allergens and can be safely tasted.

Figures made from homemade flour mixture are harder and preserve better than plasticine.

Basic play dough recipe

Before making modeling dough, you need to imagine what kind of products will be made, whether the dough needs to be painted, how long the modeling will take, and what drying mode will be chosen.

The basic recipe for craft dough consists of one part salt and two parts wheat flour to which 2 tsp citric acid is added. for 1 cup salt and 1 tbsp. l. vegetable oil. The amount of water added during kneading should be equal to the amount of salt.

Dough preparation method

The dough is prepared in the following order:

• Mix flour with salt and citric acid and pour this mixture into a saucepan;
• Place the pan over moderate heat and gradually add water, stirring constantly, until the dough comes away from the pan and can be rolled into a ball.
• Remove from heat and knead the dough with your hands.

Food coloring or gouache must be diluted in water, which is added before kneading the dough.

During operation, depending on the required consistency, the salt-flour mixture can be further diluted with water or oil, or flour can be added for hardness.

It is better to prepare the dough in small portions if possible, right before starting to model, and store it only in a tightly closed container or cling film.

Drying salt dough crafts

In order for handmade salt dough crafts to retain their shape and not break or crack, you need to choose the correct drying mode. You can simply leave the figures to dry naturally in the air, or you can place them in the oven.

There are two different methods for oven drying. The first is to preheat the oven, then turn it off and place the figures in the heated space. You can also bake the products at 100 degrees, making sure that there is no burning.

A master class on making dough crafts involves, first of all, experimenting with the material: the composition of the dough and its drying mode, so failures in this process are inevitable.

Helpful advice: When starting sculpting with children, you need to set them up so that the first success, after many not entirely aesthetic attempts, becomes a real miracle for them.

It is better to start with simple and uniform shapes, such as round beads of various colors and sizes. You can use them to make garlands to decorate your room.

Then you can master more complex silhouettes - stars, hearts, and three-dimensional figures - New Year's snowflakes, Christmas trees, Easter eggs with patterns, egg coasters, chickens.

You can time the production of figurines to coincide with the holidays, or choose more neutral motifs for all occasions, making souvenirs and gifts in the form of stylized horseshoes, suns, stars, airplanes and funny faces.

During modeling, you can use special molds for modeling and baking, and other things, according to the prompting of your imagination: garlic crush - for making thin ropes from dough, bottle caps - for cutting out circles, plastic toy parts - for making prints, almost everything Whatever you have on hand, from toothpicks to toy car wheels, can become a tool for modeling dough.

Note!

It is easy to make holes in the salt dough, both decorative and for hanging on threads. Holes on flat figures retain their shape when dry.

But when making more voluminous parts, such as spherical balls, in order to create a hole for the thread, you need to pierce the figure with a toothpick or other sharp instrument made of wood or plastic and do not remove it until the product dries.

Helpful advice: To glue the dough elements, just wet the individual areas and apply them to each other.

You can make garlands, keychains, medals and pendants from voluminous and flat figures. You can fashion chests and cups for storing jewelry, small treasures and pencils.

Volumetric figurines of animals

Three-dimensional figurines of animals are especially popular among children; they can be made in accordance with popular step-by-step instructions, which are intended for plasticine and clay crafts.

Note!

You can sculpt from dough without dyes, then paint the finished figurine and, after drying, coat it with varnish.

You can also cut out various figures: having made a model of them from cardboard, place it on a smooth dough previously rolled out with a rolling pin and carefully cut out along the edges. Then you can paint the figurine, add the necessary texture - roughness, strokes, make eyes, a nose or decorations from beads.

A wonderful homemade gift could be a photo frame or a unique candlestick.

Making panels that combine elements of mosaic, applique and modeling can captivate both children and adults. For the little ones, simple drawings are suitable: you first need to draw a silhouette on parchment, then carefully fill it with dough along the lines.

You can also conceive and implement more complex ideas using beads, mosaics of cereals, dried flowers, etc.

Note!

Photos of dough crafts