Ahhhh....We made it!

Winter break is upon me, and I-am-a-happy-camper!  The kiddos and families were really ready as well.

I've spent the last several weeks thinking about what to give my kiddos for their gift from me.

I've done Snowman Soup including mug for several years. One of my kiddos that is a freshman in college still does not let anyone use his mug at Christmas time.

But, this year, I wanted to do something.  One of my colleges purchased fleece and cut scarves for her children. I think I'll do the scarves next year!

This year.......I decided to make peppermint flavored play dough and it was a huge hit with each sweet kiddo!

I used the playdough recipe from Instructables. It included pictures of each step.

These pictures show my youngest kneading the dough. She informed me she was a master kneader.

I should have cooked it a bit longer but we added more flour and everything turned out great!

I added Peppermint Essential Oil during the kneading.  I didn't measure just used my nose to tell me if it was enough.  

I saw on Pinterest (but forgot to pin! insert sad face here) another teacher who used white-topped containers decorated like a snowman for her play dough. I found these oval shaped containers at the grocery store and thought they would work just fine. I used a sharpie to draw on the "coal" eyes and "carrot" noses. 

Before I placed each ball in its container, I added a special surprise to the center. This idea comes from The Clutter Free Classroom. 

I poked a hole in each ball and added several drops of food coloring, closed the hole, and placed the play dough in the container. 

NOW...THIS NEXT PART IS VERY IMPORTANT. 

Once I passed out the play dough to everyone and the cheers died down, I gave them a plastic baggy. They put the play dough in the baggy and began to squeeze and knead the dough. The color was discovered and incorporated into the play dough. 

The bag keeps their little hands, clothes, carpets, desks, tables.......really every surface.....protected. Once the color is incorporated they can take it out of the bag and play with it! 

The room smelled wonderful and the kiddos were very happy.

Another year of classroom gifts complete.