Fun with Play-Dough

I have mentioned before that my kids and I LOVE play-dough.  I have a 2 and 4 year old, they are entertained for hours with play-dough.  I like it because I find it to be relaxing while allowing me to spend quality time with both my kids. Below I have listed a few of our favorite play-dough tools and some activities and games we have enjoyed together. 

Looking for the perfect homemade play-dough recipe? Not long ago we did a huge play-dough experiment and found the perfect recipe, you can read all about it here. 

Things to Add to Play-Dough

Food Coloring- try adding fun neon colors or using gel or powder colorings for a more vibrant color. 

Glitter-make play-dough sparkly and fun.

Kool-aid- this works as a great food coloring and smells amazing.

Essential Oil or Extract- these make the play-dough smell good, only add a small drop.

Fun Tools

Kitchen utensils- we love to use our potato smasher, rolling pin, and forks.

Straws- cut straws into small pieces and let your child stick them into the play-dough.

Cookie cutters- these provide hours of fun.

Toys

   play-dough sculptures- have kids cover their favorite toys in play-dough.

   toy print- legos make great toy prints.

   foot prints- make foot prints using different toy animals.

Beads- let your child stick the beads in the play-dough.

Toothpicks- these are fun to connect play-dough pieces together with.

Popsicle sticks- kids will love trying to stick as many as they can in one big ball of play-dough.

Educational Activities

Play-dough letter mats- print off our free printable letter mats and put them in sheet protectors, your kids will love having fun while they review letters. 

Play-dough emotion faces- make different faces and talk about how different feelings are expressed (exp: happy, sad, angry). It's fun to add google eyes. 

Play-dough Earth- make one big green ball and have your child add strands of blue to it. Talk about the earth. 

Practice cutting- grab a plastic knife (or a popsicle stick will work if you are worried about your child cutting themselves) and cut away.

Fun with Coins- grab a penny, nickle, dime and quarter and let your child make imprints of each into the play-dough. Talk about the value of money and what we use money for.

Shapes- practice making shapes together.

Colors- quiz your child on their colors while playing together then experiment with mixing colors together. 

Numbers- Make lots of little balls and practice counting them.

Ecosystems- make different ecosystems (exp: ocean, desert, jungle, etc.)

Games

Whats your favorite?- ask your child questions like: "what's your favorite fruit, bug, animal " then have them make that object with play-dough. Don't be afraid to let your child add things to the play-dough. We added black-beans for watermelon seeds, pipe cleaners for bug antennas and eyes for animals.

Silly Hair- Cover a picture of  your child with laminate or put it in a plastic bag and have your child add hair to it. 

Play-dough I Spy- hide a bunch of small objects (like buttons or coins) in play-dough and have your child find them.

Play bakery or pretend to cook- have your child make their favorite treat. Pull out the muffin tin, cup cake wrappers, cookie sheet and cookie cutters, decorate a cake or make a pizza.

Potato head- make eyes, nose and mouth out of plastic pieces and let your child stick them in play-dough.

Tallest Tower- see who can build the tallest tower.

What are some of your favorite things to do with play-dough?