Playdough Circuits (Preschool and Kindergarten)
This year, electric playdough got streamlined for Saturday science. I had the preschoolers make the conductive play dough and reused it with our kindergarten-aged group. (Regular play dough works too, but it's cheaper and more fun to make a salt-heavy recipe, plus it allows some experimentation.) To up our challenge level in circuit making with playdough, I had all of the little ones draw circuit diagrams in advance.
This was especially fun for the three-year-olds, who I had draw a big circle, with a little circle on it, and a rectangle. It was very challenging for them and they drew me lots and lots of circles.
For the kindergarterners, the kids also had to add the word "Circuit," arrows for the way electricity moves through, and little pluses and minuses for charge (a concept I didn't expect them to understand, but just to familiarize). Then they built their circuits on their diagrams.
The older kids didn't get a chance to do their circuits this week due to a high number of short circuits and other burn-outs, but look forward to seeing their creations!
Previous adventures in electric playdough.
