I was at a pizza place recently where they provided each of the kids with a ball of pizza dough occupy them until the pizza arrived.  I was with a group of friends and all together we may have had enough kids to fill a preschool class, so I'm not saying that this pizza dough was the big solution to keeping them occupied or quiet.  But it did get me thinking about what might have happened, had I been thinking a little more artfully...

*Try to make something tall. Now try to make something wide. 

*Can you turn that ball into three small balls? 

*Now what can you make with that? 

*How can you make something long, like a snake.

*Now what would happen if you joined the ends together?

*Can you make something hollow, like a bowl? 

*How do you think they make that ball flat like a pizza?

The dough was a good idea.  Kids always like to have something in their hands.  But sometimes they need a little help thinking about what they can do with it.  With a few questions, you can get them thinking about shapes, properties of materials, what they can do with their own hands.  That day in the pizza place, amidst hungry preschoolers, mom friends I wanted to trade stories with, piles of napkins and pitchers of lemonade, I didn't think about trying to engage them with the dough (even if that might sound silly), but maybe next time I will.  Maybe you will too.