Dough Disco

‘Dough Disco’ is a good way to warm up those important muscles in our hands, arms and shoulders in preparation for a busy day. Children are to be given a ball of play dough then to the beat of the music, the children copy the adult as they demonstrate various ways to manipulate the play dough, exercising as many of those important muscles as possible.  

How to make own dough at home?

You will need: 

1 cup of cold water
1 cup of salt
2 teaspoons of vegetable oil
3 cups of flour
2 tablespoons of corn flour
food colouring

Instructions: 

-Gather together all of your ingredients.
-Put the dry ingredients in a bowl and then slowly add water.
-Mix until it forms a nice dough.
-It should now be easy to pick up and mould – add more flour if it is too sticky and more water if it is too dry.
-Knead it well with your hands to get all the food colouring to blend in.
-Then the fun begins! You can store your play dough in an airtight container when you have finished playing.
-You can add food colouring to your play dough and even a sprinkle of glitter to make it sparkly. Add a drop or two of essential oils to make it fragranced or grains of rice for texture. Have fun experimenting with different additions.

How to do Dough Disco at home?

Exercises (don't forget to pop on your favourite tunes and give these simple exercises a go): 
Smack it: using the palm of your hands, flatten the dough into a pancake shape.

Squeeze it: with the dough in one hand squeeze hard.

Roll it: using flat palms roll the dough between both hands forming a sausage shape

Ball it: using both hands, roll the dough into a ball shape.

Dive in: in turn, plunge each individual finger into a ball of dough

There are many 'Dough Disco' videos for your child to join in with on YouTube.