Updated: Nov 23, 2021
Physical Development - Moving and Handling (40-60+ months): Uses simple tools to effect changes to materials.
You will need:
I used a BBC Good food recipe (see the link for ingredients).
A frog cookie cutter.
Candy eyes - from Asda
Cake Sprinkles - from Poundland.
We followed the recipe to create some frog biscuits. We made thick icing using icing sugar, water and green food colouring and used it to decorate the frogs. Then we added candy eyes and cake sprinkles to turn them into speckled frogs from the nursery rhyme.
This was a lovely activity that we returned to throughout the day to complete the different stages. It also provided many opportunities to develop pre-writing skills.
To make the activity easier, I pre-weighed the ingredients and left the butter out to soften.
Benji helped to scoop and transfer the dry ingredients and tipped the egg into the mixing bowl. He stirred the mixture then kneaded it together to form a dough.
Strengthening Wrists and fingers – Stirring and kneading the ingredients will strengthen their wrists and fingers, ready for when they need to be able to manipulate a pencil.
He helped to roll the dough out and press the cookie cutter down which also developed wrist and hand strength.
Once the biscuits had been cooked and cooled we carried on with the activity. Benji helped to make the icing by adding a small amount of water at a time.
He decorated the biscuits with icing and sprinkles.
Pincer Grip – Encourage your child to use their thumb and finger to pick up the cake sprinkles. This skill will be used later on to hold a pencil properly.
Hand-eye Co-ordination – Positioning the eyes and sprinkles on the biscuit develops the skills needed for children to be able to use their eyes to guide their hand when forming letters.
Enjoy eating your biscuits as you listen to Five Little Speckled Frogs and some of the other nursery rhymes.
If you have a go at this activity and share any photos on social media I would love to see them. Please tag @miniwritersclub and let me know how you get on.
Anna
Amazon Affiliate Links:
Clicking the link below doesn't cost you any extra but as an Amazon Associate I earn a small percentage from qualifying purchases.