10 Activity Ideas For Playdough

Playdough is fantastic.  Not only do kids love it, but it's also great for their development.  Children squeeze, poke, roll, pound and flatten playdough, all of which help to strengthen their hand and finger muscles (fine motor development). The development of these small muscles is extremely important for more complex tasks such as pencil grip and cutting skills.

Below I have listed 10 activity ideas that can be used to extend the interests and benefits of playdough.

1. Cut playdough with scissors

Cutting playdough with scissors

Cutting playdough with scissors

2. Make letters and words with playdough

3. Make a birthday cake. Use matchstix for candles. Count the matchstix.  Cut the cake in half and quarters.
4. Roll out sausages.  Use a blunt knife and fork to cut the sausages.
5. Use playdough with patty pans, muffin trays, rolling pins, cookie cutters.  You can even add a flour shaker for some extra cooking fun!
6. Add objects of interest (e.g. dinosaurs, farm animals, cars etc)
7. Place number cards on the table.  Children roll balls of dough and place the correct number on the corresponding number card.

Playdough with number cards

Playdough with number cards

8. Mix play dough colours i.e.

• Red dough + blue dough = purple dough
• Red dough + yellow dough = orange dough
• Blue dough + yellow dough = green dough
• Mix all colours together = rainbow/brown colour dough (see spaghetti image below!)

9. Use dough extruders to make spaghetti, long hair, worms etc.

Spaghetti dough using the dough extruders

10. Add flowers, rice, glitter, essential oils or any other sensory object.  Let children squish, poke, roll, pound and manipulate the dough with their fingers and see where their imagination takes them.

These activities will not only develop children's fine motor abilities, but will also enhance their creativity, imagination,  literacy and numeracy concepts.

Making Rust

Try this science experiment with your kids... mine eagerly checked the items every day and were very excited when they saw the rust forming!

What you need:

Old baking tray
Paper towel
Unwanted metal items (eg. nails, paper clips etc)
Salt
Lemon juice

What you do:

Line the baking tray with paper towel.
Place metal items in tray
Sprinkle salt and lemon juice over the top
Leave for a few days and watch the rust form.

Making rust science experiment - place metal items in tray

Making rust science experiment - Sprinkle with lemon juice and salt

Making rust science experiment - Day 3 - the rust is beginning to form

Making rust science experiment - Day 3 - the rust is beginning to form

This experiment, and many others can be found in this book: (link under image)

Everything You Need To Know About Science
Paper back - $19.99
Hard back - $29.99

Reflective Writing Task

This is always an activity my kids enjoy.   It can be done as often as you like... once a week, every day etc.  It's also a great open-ended activity that children of various ages can do.

Ask your child to write about something they have done or what they liked most that day or that week.

Some questions or prompts you could use to help get your child started include:
What did you do?
Where did you go?
Who did you see?
How did it make you feel?
What was the best part?

Younger children will require assistance with the writing, however they will still get enjoyment from illustrating their 'story'.

 

We often do this in the school holidays and the kids often flick back through the pages and say things like "Oh yeah, I loved doing that".  It's a great momento!

For the beginning writer, this Storytelling Paper Pad is great as each page is divided into two areas, one for writing and one for illustrating.

Storytelling Paper Pad

Or ...

This pack comes with everything you need... Storytelling paper,  HB lead pencils & Colour pencils.

Storytelling Pack

Linking Cubes Math Game

Here is a fun game your active child will love...and they won't even realise they're doing math!!

What you need:
Linking cubes
Paper
Pen

What you do:

1. Place a large bowl with linking cubes at one end of the room.
2. Write a number on a piece of paper and get your child to run to the bowl, make a tower with that many cubes and bring it back to you.
3. You could also do this with simple addition or subtraction.  Hold up the sum and your child brings back the answer (ie. 4+2 ... your child brings back a tower of 6 cubes).

Linking Cubes

Extraordinary Eggs

I did this science experiment with my kids... they loved the result!

Put an egg in a cup and cover it completely with vinegar.  Leave it for a few days and the eggshell will become soft...

 Day 1:

Day 2:

Day 3:

The shell has become soft because the vinegar has drawn all the calcium out of the shell.

More great science experiments can be found in this book (link under image).

EYNK Science
Paperback $19.95
Hardback $29.95

Magic Painting

What you need:

• Candle
• Water based paint
• Paint brushes
• Cup of water
• Paper

What you do:

• Draw a range of pictures or letters on the paper with the candle.
• Paint the page with the water based paint
• Watch the 'magic pictures' appear!!

Such a simple activity but the kids love finding the hidden pictures!  Kids also love drawing with the candle and unveiling their own pictures.

Salt dough

Salt dough recipe:

1 cup flour

1 cup salt

1/2 cup water

1. Mix all ingredients together...

2. Mould your salt dough into various shapes.

 

A salt dough footprint of our dog

A salt dough snake with lots of eggs

A salt dough flower

A salt dough plait

A salt dough 'S' for Sienna

A salt dough heart

A salt dough monster with lots of eyes

A salt dough smiley face

 3. Bake the dough at 100 degrees celcius for approx 3 hours.  Time will vary depending on the thickness of the dough.  If the dough is still soft, return it to the oven and bake until it is firm.

4. Paint your dough with Rainbow Paint.

Developmental benefits:

• Fine motor development - mixing, kneading moulding, squeezing, poking and painting are all great for strengthening the smaller muscles of the hands and fingers
• Sensory development - kneading, moulding and touching the various textures ie. flour, water etc allows for tactile exploration
• Imagination & creativity - children are able to express their creativity through modelling and sculpting their dough.