Play dough Valentines Bakery

Celebrate your Valentines day by spending time with your little one and creating your own little bakery of  treats. This play idea is a great way for encouraging counting, sharing and speech development.

To make your own beautiful pink sparkly strawberry scented play dough, you simply add strawberry flavouring's. I found a natural own from my local cake supplies shop. Add at the same time as your pink food colouring and glitter. I usually do this before adding the water to my no-cook play dough recipe. This can then be storage in a plastic bag or tub with a lid for up to a week.

I used some card to make some price labels as prompts for the children when they returned for school, if you have time you could also make a shop sign and cardboard coins. I also placed some blank ones on the table with a pen so the children could write their own. If you would like to introduce more mark making you could also add a note pad for taking orders. 

P wrote a signs and had good fun making up some new idea's for the bakery. She gave some of the labels to Little man that she thought would be easy for him to make. The children then got to work making lots of lovely pink treats which they moulded or cut out before decorating with cup cake sprinkles. 

Little man had great fun with the decorating and we extended his learning by counting the big sprinkles he was adding and discussing the different sizes of  the cakes and cookies. The children loved playing shops together once the shop was finished. 

As the children are a bit older and I was running out of time I used real coins to help the children count. I helped P practice her subtraction by giving her more money then was needed so she could work out what change she needed to give me. 

Link to development matters

Communication and Language:

 • Listens to others one to one or in small groups, when conversation interests them • Listens and responds to ideas expressed by others in conversation or discussion. • Beginning to use more complex sentences to link thoughts (e.g. using and, because).• Uses language as a powerful means of widening contacts, sharing feelings, experiences and thoughts. • Holds a conversation, jumping from topic to topic.• Learns new words very rapidly and is able to use them in communicating. • Uses gestures, sometimes with limited talk, e.g. reaches toward toy, saying ‘I have it’.• Uses a variety of questions (e.g. what, where, who).

Physical Development:

• Uses simple tools to effect changes to materials. • Handles tools, objects, construction and malleable materials safely and with increasing control. • Shows a preference for a dominant hand.

Mathematics:
• Uses some number names and number language spontaneously.• Uses some number names accurately in play. • Recites numbers in order to 10. • Knows that numbers identify how many objects are in a set. • Beginning to represent numbers using fingers, marks on paper or pictures.

Expressive arts and design:
• Engages in imaginative role-play based on own first-hand • Uses available resources to create props to support role-play.

experiences.