This is a great sensory experience, and it's good for counting practice as well!
You can see exactly what to do in the video above. But in case you don't have time to watch:
- You need 10 pine nuts (or any number of smallish objects).
- You need a small amount of play doh. The amount will depend on the age of the child. I think that an older child, you could use more of the play doh (and more objects to hide). This was a good amount for Alexander because it didn't take much effort to find the pine nuts. A younger child, I would use a smaller amount of the play doh and only 3-5 objects.
- I pressed the play doh fairly flat.
- Alexander would press the pine nuts into the dough, and we would count them as he did so.
- Once all 10 were pressed into the dough, I would roll up the play doh and roll it into a ball. Most of the pine nuts were visible from the outside, and the others were just under the surface.
- I handed him the doh ball, and he would dig through and pull out each of the 10 pine nuts, counting as he went.
Super simple!
NOTE: You don't want to do this if your baby is allergic to nuts! Use rice or dry beans or plastic/wooden beads. I just happened to have pine nuts in the pantry. (Plus "pine nuts in play doh" sounds cuter than "dry beans in play doh," am I right?)
