The Imagination Tree

Creative play and learning for kids

Salt Dough Olympic Medals!

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We made some salt dough medals with number imprints ready to celebrate the Olympics which are being held in our home city of London this year! 
Salt Dough Recipe:
  • 1 cup salt
  • 1 cup plain (all purpose) flour
  • 3/4 cup water
Simply combine the flour and salt in a bowl, then add the water gradually. Knead the mixture until it becomes a dough-like consistency. It will feel very grainy because of the high salt content, but that’s fine. If still too sticky add a touch more flour, if it won’t hold together well then more water, a teaspoon at a time.

We squeezed some glitter confetti into our dough to make it sparkly, just for fun! (You can buy these in tubes from Early Learning Centre.) 
Once we had made our dough, Cakie rolled it out until it was 1-2cm thick. We found an octagon cutter to cut out three medal shapes. Then we pushed a straw into each one to create a hole for threading the ribbon through later.
We found our wooden numbers (same as the wooden letters we used in this play dough letter impression post) and Cakie identified the numbers 1, 2 and 3. She pushed them into the medals to create an impression in the dough.

 We talked about 1st, 2nd and 3rd place and what that means in relation to the Olympic races and contests. I explained how 1st place earns a gold, 2nd a silver and 3rd a bronze and which she would prefer to win?

When they were finished we put them on a piece of baking parchment on a baking tray, and dried them in the oven for 2 hours with the oven on a very low temperature (around 100 degrees C or roughly 210 F.) They needed to be turned over once during the “cooking”. 
The next day they painted them gold, silvery pink (!) and bronze with acrylic paints. To make bronze we experimented by adding primary blue to the gold in tiny amounts, until it looked about right.

Then we threaded them with red ribbon and they are ready to wear! A little bit closer to the real events we are going to be having our own mini-Olympics, and these will be perfect to add to the fun!

Learning Links:

  • physical development: strengthening small hand muscles by kneading, rolling, forming, squishing, flattening dough, hand-eye coordination
  • maths: recognising and matching numerals, understanding the concept of ordinal numbers (i.e. 1st, 2nd, 3rd) and their practical relevance, recognising and naming 2D shapes
  • knowledge & understanding of the world: history and explanation of the Olympic games, exploring change of materials from dry (ingredients) to stretchy (dough) to hard (finished models)
  • creativity: combining media,  working in 3D, creating relief prints

Cakie: 3 years 7 months
Pop: 2 years 1 month
Bean: 9 weeks

Comments

  10. Anonymous says

    Oh they’re great!! Just wondering- where did you get those great wooden numbers from? Also- any ideas about which crafts may be suitable for my 3 year old daughter who is autistic? Thank you- you’re an inspiration!! Katie webb

  14. Elizabeth and David says

    Looks like fun! Going to try and do this with my 2 year old this week. Just found your blog and enjoying all of your wonderful ideas for little ones! Thanks for sharing!