Go Away, Big Green Monster Cloud Dough | Still Playing School

Go Away, Big Green Monster Cloud Dough

Presenting our children with a bin of colored sensory cloud dough led to a retelling of the story Go Away, Big Green Monster!


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This post is a part of Little Bins for Little Hands' Sensory Bin Challenge. In the past few months we've presented our kids with plain sensory bins of rice, dirt, water, and sand to see what child led play evolves. This month our material was flour and water. I really wanted to try Powerful Mothering's recipe for taste safe colored cloud dough. While it worked I recommend one tip: Blend the oil with the food coloring in a food processor before mixing! Otherwise I just couldn't get the color to mix into the oil.


I chose green because it is one color our toddler D is still working to identify. Right away our preschooler E started drawing faces in the dough. Then D found a lone CraftProjectIdeas' wiggly eye our on our back deck (I often wonder what our landscapers think of the assorted craft and sensory remains they find lost in our yard!) 

E thought of  Go Away, Big Green Monster by Ed Emberly. We've been reading this book as we help her work through anxiety and fears. The book builds the monster body part by body part then banishes it away in the same fashion exclaiming "Go Away!" on each page! We're hoping to rid her anxiety in a similar fashion. This is also a wonderful book to read as Halloween approaches. 



She asked to build (and destroy) her own big green cloud dough monster. I provided her with blue, red, and white craft foam, scissors, purple ribbon for hair, and yellow wiggly eyes (just like in the story!)


She loved retelling Go Away, Big Green Monster through this sensory play experience creating her own literacy activity!

The craft foam was a great choice since paper might absorb some of the oil from the cloud dough. The activity can be packed away and reused endlessly through the Halloween season!



We are homeschooling for preschool this fall and E likes to tell people, "Momma is my teacher and I am D's teacher!" She took this role on well during this activity by naming the parts of the monster's face which is another skill we are currently working on with our toddler D!


Of course, the sensory experience of the cloud dough itself also provided lots of fun as well! In our literacy loving family, if you give a preschooler cloud dough, they might just want a story retelling activity to go with it! 



Craft Project Ideas sends us complimentary craft supplies. We are grateful for the opportunity to share the activities we create with their products! You can purchase these same supplies either online or in stores at Wal-Mart. 

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