Festive fun

Emma McKinney
By Emma McKinney
3 Min Read

This month we take a break from our series on Activities of Daily Living and focus on creating some festive decorations and treats

Salty Dough Star Ornaments

This easy recipe for festive star ornaments is a fun way to get children involved in the kitchen and develop their fine motor skills.

Ingredients/Equipment

  • 1 cup flour (not self-rising)
  • ½ cup salt
  • ½ cup water (or more as needed)
  • Rolling pin
  • Baking tray
  • Cookie cutters (stars, circles, Christmas trees etc.)
  • Decorations: acrylic paints, paintbrush, seeds, glitter etc
  • Straw and ribbon

Method

  • Preheat oven to 180˚C. Measure flour and salt, then add them to a medium mixing bowl and stir.
  • Add water.
  • Mix thoroughly. Sprinkle the table with flour and knead dough until it’s soft and pliable. Add more flour if needed.
  • Using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll out the dough.
  • Cut out ornaments using cookie cutters.
  • Place ornament on a baking tray.
  • Using your straw, create a hole for the ribbon that will hang the ornament.
  • Bake for two to three hours, or until completely dry. Flip once while baking, then remove and allow to cool completely.
  • When the ornaments have cooled, decorate them with paints and/or glitter and thread the ribbon through the hole to hang.

Decorated pinecones

  • Piece of newspaper
  • Pinecone (dried) or any other seedpod
  • Wood or runny paper glue
  • Ribbon
  • Glitter (different colours)

Method

  • Place the newspaper on the table to keep things clean.
  • Tie a piece of ribbon to the top of the pinecone so that it can hang.
  • Dab the glue on the places that you would like the glitter to stick.
  • Carefully shake different colour glitter on the glue spots.
  • Allow to dry and hang on the Christmas tree.
  • You can use a seedpod or dried leaf if you can’t find a pinecone.

Mom’s notes

Let the children help you as much as they can. The more involved they are, the more fun they will have. Never leave children unattended when they are working with hot ovens.


Dr Emma McKinney is a “children with disabilities” specialist, a post doctoral fellow at Stellenbosch University and owns a company called Disability Included. email: emma@disabilityincluded.co.za

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Emma McKinney
Children with Disabilities Specialist
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Dr Emma McKinney is a “children with disabilities” specialist, a post doctoral fellow at Stellenbosch University and owns a company called Disability Included.
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