Celebrate Play-Doh Month With A Colourful Community Challenge

It’s Play-Doh Month! Play-Doh is the beloved modelling clay well known since 1956, so much so that it is now a household name for any type of modelling clay. Just say Play-Doh and every kid would know what it is. Play-Doh was my kids’ very first ‘toy’ when they were about 2, both Josiah and Jordan loved to just press it and sometimes just tear it into tiny pieces or mix the colours to make new ones. I have so many ‘machines’ in my house, from ice cream machines to cookie making machines!

Therefore, it is so exciting when Play-Doh challenged us to create our very own sculpture to reflect what most represents Malaysia to us, or what a colourful community is to us. We did not want to go with the obvious, so we decided to go with the theme of unity. In Malaysia, we have so many different cultures, but what is unique is we had been living together in harmony and unity all these years. We set out to create our theme: Birds of Different Feathers Can Also Flock Together to oppose the stereotype of the popular idiom, Birds of the Feather Flock Together. The different birds and their beautiful colours represent the many different communities in Malaysia, how in diversity, we can find unity, love, and friendship too.

So, after Josiah approved the idea, we set out with out 10 mini Play-Doh cans in the party pack and started forming the shapes on a piece of drawing block paper. We decided to lay them flat so that we can frame this piece of art work later.

Josiah was very focused to get the perfect colours and shape mixed together to make the nicest species of bird he can think of. He wanted to make some big and some small birds all standing on a line and maybe a flying one too. He planned how to utilise all the ten colours in the mini cans so it can be as colourful as possible.

After a while, we managed to see some nice birds formed and taking up the space nicely. I was loving every feature of the birds, some fat and some small, but they were all sticking close together. Just like in life, it is lonely to be just one person, and it is hard to get anything done as one person even if you are the most talented the most skilled or the most beautiful. The birds stick close together on the line to give each other warmth, to accompany each other in the rain or in the sun.

Finally, our artwork of the six birds were done, even with a hummingbird that was seen flying above. Josiah wanted to decorate them more and even have the words Malaysia below the birds in rainbow shades.

This is the final work! Yes you can do art with Play-Doh too! .

We got it framed so we can keep it hanging on our walls forever, to remind us of the fun time we had making this thanks to Play-Doh and to remind us that yes, Birds of Different Feathers Can Flock Together Too.

Jordan wanted to be in the picture too! What do you think of Josiah’s masterpiece.

Guess what, from 21-27 Sept 2015, at the Ground Floor Highstreet 1 Utama, both adults and kids can come and get the chance to create our very own Malaysia inspired masterpieces. Your masterpiece can be anything, from sculptures to numbers of alphabets! The event is going to be so awesome because by participating, you will actually be in The Malaysia Book of Records attempt for the most Play-Doh sculptures created in a single day on Sept 26 (Sat). Your successful attempt will be displayed for all Malaysians to admire, and the most creative sculpture will win some great and exciting Play-Doh prizes. Also, there will be fun activities like Doh-Doh mascot appearances, be a Play-Doh baker for a day and special Play-Doh promotions.

So join me and Josiah at the roadshow in 1 Utama, we will be there shaping up a storm this Saturday and breaking some records! We just love the many possibilities of Play-Doh, it ain’t just a kid’s toy, it is a tool to encourage learning and experimentation, and I could see how my boys learn many skills from shapes to colours to mixing them, and even social and intellectual skills when trying to exchange ideas, collaborate and problem-solving.

For more info about the Play-Doh month, head to the website: www.playdoh.com