Creating With Cotton

The children have been experimenting and making different dough concoctions for the past few weeks with mixed results. Today, a group of children asked the educators for materials and ideas to create a new type of dough.

Looking through the Mudworks book, I decided the children could make cotton dough. I usually ask the children what they want to create. Today, I decided to take the lead. I am not sure why. As we started the work, I asked the children if they had ever made cotton dough. The answer was unanimous, no!

The ingredients for the cotton dough are simple, flour, water, and cotton balls. Making cotton dough involves creating a batter out of flour and water. Next, add cotton balls into the mix when the batter is the right consistency. Then place the sticky orbs of cotton on a flat surface. From there, the children can manipulate each batter-covered ball into a shape or form. The finished wet shapes are placed on a cookie sheet and baked in the oven to cure.

Some educators may think the process of making dough is simple, but the process of creating with materials is essential and challenging. In the book, The Hundred Languages of Children, Lella Gandini shares about a child's process of interacting with materials. "Searching for and discovering how a particular material presents itself and is transforming helps the child acquire knowledge about the material itself."

As we made the dough, the children said that "it smelled funny." As they worked with the dough, the children said, "it was too sticky." The children were not thrilled about the cotton dough. The weight of the batter on the cotton ball made it hard to form into shapes, so all the children's creations turned into a wet mushy blob.

The creative process invites children to play with materials and ideas while fostering new methods of expression. The creative process invites different degrees of success and discovery.

In the end, the cotton dough transformed into a giant lopsided blob. As the children struggled with forming the dough, interest waned. Only a few children who started the project stayed to complete it. I suggested we combine the entire batch of dough into one giant blob. We stacked the sticky blob onto a cookie sheet for baking. After the dough cooled, we painted it in bold colors. The result looked like a lopsided loaf of colorful French bread.

What did we learn from the cotton dough experience?

Often, the children do not enjoy project ideas generated by educators. Some projects look exciting and fun, but in practice, they are neither. Our classroom projects are more successful when educators follow the children's interests.

The experience of making cotton dough would be different if it were the children's idea instead of mine. Children choosing to create something invites a more genuine experience and outcome for children.

For the learning community, witnessing the unfolding of the cotton dough project is essential. Other people see the result of our work, but that only tells a sliver of the experience. Families experience the process through photos and stories from the educators and children. The collection of stories behind the process gives meaning to the work we do daily with the children. The process becomes more than a story the children tell their parents about the smelly dough we made today after school.