Birthday Claycakes

Children love to play pretend birthday party.  To start off this pretend party we needed to make the birthday “cupcakes”.  I set out a tray with some play dough, cut up straws, beads, cotton balls and cupcake liners.

After rolling the cupcakes into balls, we placed them into the cupcake liners and they were ready to decorate.  The beads became delightful and colorful sprinkles.  The cotton made wonderful icing but we also found another use…

Put a straw in the middle of your claycake.  Place the cotton ball (or rip off a small piece of the cotton ball) on the top of the straw.  Now you have your birthday candle ready to blow out.  Blowing the cotton ball off of the straw was excellent practice for little ones to strengthen the muscles around the mouth.

After a many rounds (you know toddlers they love repetition) of singing “happy birthday to you” and blowing out the cotton candles, I give this activity a big thumbs up.