Snap, snap, snap, it's cookie making time!

That’s what we did at preschool when we made our playdough of the month for November. Did we eat it? Nope. Instead we played with it and created lots of sparkly playdough cookies. To get in a cookie baking mood, we started by reading “Cookies” from Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel.

I love Frog and Toad stories. They are so funny. In this one Toad makes the best cookies ever when he shares them with Frog, they discover that they just can’t stop eating them. Has that ever happened to you? It has me! They decide they need willpower to stop but summoning up willpower is harder than they think.

*Click to visit All Music and here a snippet.*

I also happen to have A Year With Frog and Toad CD from a wonderful broadway play set to the wonderful Frog and Toad books. It has a funny, upbeat song based on the “Cookies” story. We listened to that, dancing and giggling! Then it was time to make our own cookies!

Ginger Snap Playdough

Ingredients ~

1 cup flour
½ cup salt
1 ½ teaspoon cream of tartar
1 tablespoon oil, I like to use coconut or olive oil
1 cup of ginger tea or water
1 to 2 tablespoons blackstrap molasses
ground spices: ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg & allspice*
cocoa powder, optional

Instructions ~

Combine all the flour, salt, and cream of tartar in a pan. Add the oil, tea/water and molasses, mixing well. Cook slowly over low heat. Stir almost constantly until the playdough sets up. Let the playdough cool to warm before playing; playdough right off the stove is hot!

*You can either add the ground spices and cocoa powder while the playdoh is cooking or add them later while your child is playing with the playdough. We added the spices and cocoa powder during play time and pretended we were bakers adding and mixing in ingredients.

I provided the kids with rolling pins, cookie cutters, little baking sheets (some of them were paint pallets) and glitter for making and decorating their cookies. It was a fun day of “baking”!

Shared On: The Weekly Kid's Co-op, It's Playtime!