Ladybug Playdough

Welcome to the third edition of the 12 Months of Sensory Dough Series. This month is all about Edible Play Dough. We have been anxious for spring to arrive and have been reading all about ladybugs this week. As a special treat, I made a batch of edible playdough and we used some sweet things to create ladybugs.

If you missed our prior month's posts, make sure to check out our Cupcake Foam Dough and our Digging for Worms Cloud Dough.

Book Recommendations We picked up several books about ladybugs at our local library and wanted to share some of our favorites: 

• Can you make a Scary Face by Jan Thomas is a fun read aloud story that will have your child interacting and laughing throughout the book. My three year old requested it over and over and it quickly became a favorite during the week. 
• Ladybugs by Gail Gibbons is a great informational book about Ladybugs geared towards preschool and elementary-aged children. We loved learning about and discussing all the different types of ladybugs. 
• What the Ladybug Heard by Julia Donaldson is a fun non-fiction story centered around a ladybug who doesn't talk, until one day when he gets word about some robbers who plan on stealing the farm's cow. It held my daughter's attention and the plan acted out which saves the cow was both clever and funny, making for a great story.  

Build a Ladybug Playdough
For our playdough, I used the Gluten-free Edible Playdough Recipe found at Fun at Home with Kids. God bless wonderful Asia and her amazing talents in coming up with such fantastic recipes! I just love her site! To color our playdough and to add some flavor, we added a package of Cherry Jello when making it.
**Disclaimer: Although this playdough is edible (meaning all the ingredients are safe to eat) and I did allow my children to have a small taste of it, I did not encourage them or allow them to sit and eat it. A small taste was sufficient to make the activity fun. Also, since we were using other edible pieces along with our activity that I knew my children would be nibbling on, I felt it was important to include safe, edible playdough with this activity.**
On our creating tray, I included a circle and oval shaped cookie cutter, black edible Sparkle Gel, candy eyes, chocolate chips, mint wafer cookies and chocolate Twizzlers cut in different lengths.     

All three of my children were home and able to play so it made the activity even more fun for all of us! After exploring and playing with their ball of playdough, they pressed it flat and used a cookie cutter to make their ladybug body.

They used the items in the tray to create a face, separate the wings, make spots, antennae and legs. The edible sparkly gel worked great to help glue the eyes on the face.

They even rolled a tiny piece of playdough to make a little ladybug mouth. We loved comparing how they each chose to put a different amount of spots on their ladybugs.

We giggled and laughed at our creations and might have nibbled a little on some of the chocolate chips and Twizzlers from the tray.  :)

I invite and encourage you to visit all of the Co-hosts as each will have a different take on the dough and you don't want to miss out on all of the great ideas and insights! 
Meet the Co-hosts: 

Lemon Lime Adventure

Look! We're Learning!

Glittering Muffins

Still Playing School

Little Bins for Little Hands

Natural Beach Living

The Eyes of a Boy

Powerful Mothering

Wildflower Rambling

Delightful Learning

The Life of Jennifer Dawn

Now it's your turn...
Do you have a favorite Edible Play Dough recipe, activity or post you would like to share? We would love to see! Have you ever had a Play Dough Fail? We would love to see those too! Please link up your posts below in the link party. You can also post a picture on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Google+ with the tag #ilovesensorydough. 
Please read the following guidelines before linking up.

• Share family-friendly posts related to the month's theme. Feel free to link old or new posts that highlight your favorite recipes for sensory dough. Failures and unsuccessful attempts are welcome.

• We ask that no posts are linked with copy/paste recipes from other sources. If you use a recipe from another source, please link back to the original recipe.

• By linking up, you give permission to share your post and one photograph in future posts and through social media channels.

• Visit 2-3 other posts that others have shared. Discover new ideas and meet new friends!

• If you would like to, please grab the 12 Months of Sensory Dough button for your blog.

The linky will remain open for two weeks. On the 12th of each month, all co-hosts will post a new dough with their spin, and will pin each post to the 12 Months of Sensory Dough Board.

Don't forget to join us next month (April 12th) for Scented Dough. 

To see the yearly schedule, go HERE.

An InLinkz Link-up