Playdough is a staple of childhood. It always amazes me how long it can keep a child’s interest, squishing, pounding, rolling, and cutting. I personally prefer homemade Classic Playdough, because it’s cheaper, better smelling, a bit softer and easier for little hands to command, and I have a little less to worry about when my son snitches another pinch to eat. (Should I worry about the fact that he’ll often turn his nose up at the dinners I make, but will gladly eat playdough?)
Rolling out the dough and using your favorite cutters is always fun, but playdough is all about limitless creativity, so here are some ideas that might help you shake things up a bit.
- Add a shaker bottle of glitter. Cover some of the holes so it doesn’t come out too quickly! Let your kiddos sprinkle it on as “cookie sprinkles” or knead it in for magical glitter playdough.
- Supply “loose parts” like pipe cleaners, beads, googly eyes, toothpicks, even accessories from Mr. Potato Head! Pushing these pieces into playdough not only encourages a lot of creative fun, but it also builds the same fine motor strength and control needed for writing.
- Bring in the scissors! Kids love to cut playdough! It helps build cutting skills in a non-threatening, fun way.
- Extruders like these are a blast to play with and they build that hand strength as well. (As I mentioned before, if your kids have been frustrated by these in the past, try it again with the Classic Playdough.) If you need an impromptu extruder, try using a garlic press!
What is your favorite way to use playdough?
We love play dough. And we love those extruders.
One thing that has been a favorite lately. We print letters or line designs (waves, spirals) on paper. Kids make play dough “snakes” to create the same shapes. Not for all kids but definitely a fun alternative way to use play dough.
I had written a blog post about pipe cleaners and set up to do a giveaway when I happened to read my inbox and saw that your awesome playdough fun post shows another neat way to integrate pipe cleaners into the fun.
I have included a link to this post on my Reggio Emilia Wednesday post called Pipe Cleaner Fun and a Giveaway Too!
Here is the link to my post where I provide a link to your post:
http://sunriselearninglab.blogspot.com/2011/01/reggio-emilia-wednesday-pipe-cleaner.html
As always, I love your posts for Not Just Cute…
Hope that you are having a good week,
Colleen:)
Great minds think alike! Thanks for your link and your kind words!
I’m wondering if you can help me. I am writing a paper on patience verses understanding guidelines for family and teacher relationships. Could you tell me what your take is on this subject? Are there any resources that address this topic? I know Nancy Weber’s article in the Young Child. If there’s any other information out there that you can tell me about, it would be greatly appreciated.
I wrote a post inspired by Nancy’s article. You can read it here: https://notjustcute.com/2008/06/21/patience-comes-from-understanding/
I’m sure there are more resources, but off the top of my head, Nancy’s would be the one I would recommend. You might also look into resources on DAP, from Copple and Bredekamp. I’ll try to think of more to recommend!