My daughter LOVES Raffaello. The real one, I mean! So, it was an instant idea for pretend play in the kitchen: Let’s make Raffaello! And what better than cotton wool?! Here we share an easy way to engage kids in making and playing with cotton balls Raffaello for play kitchen.
One of the good things about having kids who love to pretend play taking place in a kitchen is that you can always take different materials and turn them into different food items including cakes and cookies!
Today we would like to share a simple sensory play activity taking place in our child sized kitchen with only 2 items you should have on hand to kick start the fun!
How about your kids? Do they like to pretend play in their kitchens? Or yours?
REQUIRED SUPPLIES TO MAKE COTTON BALLS RAFFAELLO
For this sensory play activity, you will need:
- cotton wool
- mini baking cups
HOW TO SET UP PRETEND PLAY ACTIVITY?
All you need is to decide on a place for making your raffaello. Pick a kitchen table or a place next to your child’s play kitchen. Set a table cloth or kitchen cloth on table, then add “ingredients” – cotton wool and mini baking cups.
LET’S MAKE COTTON BALL RAFFAELLO!
We started by sitting down, picking pieces of cotton wool and forming them in balls. This is awesome sensory experience and could be hard for little hands. So, for a toddler, it’s better to prepare these little cotton wool balls in advance or assist them as they make them. It’s always a good thing to let them try making it on their own first.
Let a child separate baking cups and help them count how many they would need. Great for fine motor skills! Separating baking cups can be tricky even for adults!
Even if they don’t know their numbers yet, it’s always good to repeat until they can grasp full meaning of numbers and counting.
Next, she was putting her Raffaello in mini paper baking cups and on a tray. For the end, she decided to serve it on a plate to her dad! He also loves Raffaello!
At all time, she had these Oobi eye puppets she was playing with before we started making our cotton wool Raffaello! You could probably see them on almost all pictures!
WHICH SKILLS CAN BE DEVELOPED WHEN MAKING COTTON WOOL RAFFAELLO?
Some of the skills we worked on as we created our little pretend play treat:
- fine motor skills
- math – counting
- sensory – tactile
NEXT ACTIVITY TO TRY WITH YOUR TODDLERS
If your child shows an interest to help you with cooking, you can turn your kitchen into a play area for them. For little cooks, there are 5 different ways to play with play food. How many your child tried so far? Few other sensory play ideas mixed in with pretend play cooking your child can try:
- Jelly Cherry Pie with Cloud Dough Crust
- Jelly Cake Invitation to Play
- Icy Water Bead Soup
- Winter Scented Cookies
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