Posts Tagged ‘Play-Doh’
We play with playdough daily, usually more than once. My daughter is fascinated with it and her favorite thing to do with it is to press objects into the playdough and make prints. This was not a planned post at all, and all the photos were taken with my phone since I didn’t want to interrupt her play to grab my camera that was downstairs. Simple discovery play like this is my favorite and such a fun way to connect with your toddler.
We started with our playdough and usual cookie cutters. I usually switch the cutters and color of playdough out every few weeks. Then she grabbed this light up wand of her brothers and started making prints. She was in giggly heaven, especially since it lit up every time she hit it hard enough into the play dough.
Then we grabbed some duplo and made prints . These we all agreed looked like cheezits!
We flipped the duplo over and made little “buttons” and she very carefully pressed each one.
Her giggles and my photo snapping attracted the attention of my son who brought over a gear to press into the playdough.
Activities like these that use toys you have in new and novel ways with a sense of discovery ” Hey what sort of print with that block make?” is such and easy activity but trust me it will go on for a long time, happily! We also used little people which if you press the bottom into the playdough make a shape rather reminiscent of a nipple. My nursing daughter pointed that out to me right away , the picture was rather life like so I skipped it. Other fun toys were train tracks ( skip the trains the playdough will get stuck in the wheels) and chunky puzzle pieces .
If you follow us on Twitter or Facebook you may have heard we are prepping to sell our house, this is possibly the least fun adventure I have ever had and I once ended up in Belgium by accident at 5am… long story. I have to keep the house spic and span while we are selling so get ready for some low on mess but high on fun activities like these play dough bugs . If you want to make your own play dough we have recipes even a gluten free play dough recipe!
- Gather your materials. You will need some play dough in a few colors, some large googley eyes, pipe cleaners, straws and other things you might have on hand like tooth pics, popscicle sticks, buttons… no rules ! Also to protect my table I use an old cutting board as the work space.
- Sometimes kids need a guide when they are given a buffet to create with , sometimes they don’t. So I sat down and made this bug as an example of what he could use the materials to make not what he should make , explaining that there was no wrong way to create.
- Start creating!
- Hard at work
- A trio of bugs!
Get outside and turn over rocks to find creepy crawly bugs. On our bug hunt we kept count to add some math to our outside learning.
A Few Favorite Books About Bugs
Ace Lacewing: Bug Detective
Bob and Otto
The Very Quiet Cricket
We love play-dough and if you have made homemade playdough before you probably know that there is flour in it, usually wheat flour which isn’t an issue for most kids but for children who suffer from celiac’s , gluten intolerance or wheat allergies it can turn playtime into not much fun. I searched the web for a recipe a few years back and couldn’t find a thing. Then when I saw Bisquick came out with a glueten free product I bought some to try with my Bisquick playdough recipe.
Here is how I adjusted it for the gluten free product.
1 cups gluten free Bisquick
1/2 cup salt
1 cup water
1/2 TBSP alum
1 TBSP oil
Pour everything into a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 3 mins stop and scrape and stir. Add another 1/2 – 1 tbsp of oil.
Knead. I let mine cool a while ( it gets HOT) and then my son helps knead.
I love how this playdough turned out so white! We opted to grab some cupcake liners, cookie cutters and add sprinkles (check to see if they are gluten free ) to play pretend Halloween bakery . 
Of course the sprinkles color ran and now we have brown dough but it’s still probably my favorite dough as far as texture goes! I will definitely be making this recipe again.
Play-Dough is such a versatile material. It can teach anything from shapes ( using different cookie cutters), fine motor skills ( great place to introduce scissors), pretend play , measurement while making play-dough and more. Here are some of our favorite play-dough activities we’ve done over the years.
Scented Play-Dough ( pictured above)
Need an easy well tested recipe for homemade play-dough?
In the summer lots of kids are less than eager to do anything they feel is like school work, so sit down crafts are not always the best choice. Or if you are like me and juggling an infant and an older child these quick summer activities are fast to set up, and easy to navigate with one in your arms and one busy exploring. You are probably familiar with all of these ideas but I know I get in a rut and the most obvious ideas are sometimes forgotten.
Driveway Art
I am sure most of you have sidewalk chalk. This is not at all an original idea but what we did with the chalk was fun and I want to share it. We drew a train and then grabbed an atlas and chose all different places to go to. Each place we picked up a new person that my son drew into the train. A fun outdoor geography lesson!
Play Dough & Scrap Paper Creations
I have been grabbing the play dough a lot in the past 2 weeks. My son loves to pretend to be a baker and make cakes while I check my email, or tend to his sister. The other day we decided to grab some scrap paper and add it to the cakes as decorations. Not exactly earth shattering but a really easy twist and it kept him entertained for ages! Also using scissors to cut the paper ( or playdough) is extra fine motor skills practice.
Spray Painting
$1 spray bottle from the dollar store, 2 pieces of paper, some water, washable paint and he was in heaven! Mix the paint in with the water, and let them loose.
Window Washing
I did a similar activity with my son when he was under 2 so I was shocked that now pushing 4 he would still be into it. Wow is he ever. He loves getting water, paint brushes and “washing windows” he also does the siding and porch for free! Simple , cheap and it promotes imaginative play. Not bad for a quick summer activity!
And if all that fails… Bubbles!
