“Mr Holmes, they were the footprints of…!” 谁的脚印?
Play dough (find the recipe we used here) is amazing because it is hugely versatile! Children love playing with it and it’s a perfect tool to help you educate them. Languages can be hard to learn, but when you add a bit of play dough it suddenly becomes fun and interactive!
Most of the activities we do are always based on books. We love them lots because we hope that my daughter will one day learn to associate with sounds and images with the words/characters themselves. This applies for both English and Mandarin Chinese (and any other language!).
The book we’ve chosen today is called ‘动物的脚印’ (‘Animal Footprints’) by Le Le Chinese. (See our review of the set and reading pen! And note the disclaimer below!) The aim was to get her to start recognising body parts and the differentiating features of various animal footprints (and her own).
The activity itself was quite simple, provided you have all the things you need to make footprints. We used some animal figurines, our homemade playdough and my daughter’s foot!
And we also squeezed in a little counting, too!
Where do you get animal figurines? And which ones?
Something I’ve learned from reading various Montessori bloggers is that children should get used to realistic images from the very beginning. The more realistic, the better. It’s with this in mind that I set out to find these animal figurines and found these by Schleich. These are very realistic and detailed (a little too detailed in parts) so pretty much fulfil the criteria enough for me. They’re not life-size but it looks like Schleich try to make them to scale, particularly when the figures come in a set. They may be a little pricey to buy individually, but the sets are quite good value. I was particularly lucky because I found various bundles on Facebook Marketplace (8 for £10 - bargain!) so I’m sure you can find similar bundles elsewhere online.
You don’t have to buy these for the activity; you can use your own or use other toys. But we really love these toys! We earn a little from Amazon when you use the links above to purchase anything. Thanks for your support!
UPDATE (14/07/2021 14:27): As of today, we have joined the Le Le Chinese Affiliate Program but please note that this post was written before the affiliate program ever existed! You can use our affiliate link below to get 5% off your order with Le Le when you use ‘LELEDEZIREMI’. Every purchase made with this link helps support this blog and the day-to-day running of the bookshop - so thank you in advance! And thank you to Le Le Chinese!
Link not working? Use this URL instead: https://www.lelechinese.com?sca_ref=926448.O5wzfZVszX
I hope you’re feeling inspired to do your own activities with play dough! Or maybe you’ll do this one! Either way, we’d love to hear about what you’re doing with your kids or, as an adult, how you’re trying to learn another language. You should let us know in the comments below. Let’s talk! Leave a comment below or follow us on social media. The links can be found in the right side of the footer (bottom of this page).
Till soon!
Outline by Michal Ong, written by Delicia Ong