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.