Inside: Learn about super fun and engaging Playdough activities to help your child learn and play!
Playdough is such a fun material to use with toddlers and preschoolers to help them with playing, learning, and development! Playdough activities can be fun sensory experiences with the way that it squishes through your hands as you manipulate it into different shapes!
Playdough can be a great way to help your child learn letters, numbers, and shapes! Take a look at all the ways you can use Playdough activities to help your child learn a variety of skills along with having fun!
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Playdough Activities
Playing with Playdough can be such a fun sensory experience to learn a variety of skills! I love the endless opportunities Playdough allows you and your child to create, have fun, and learn all at the same time!
I wanted to create a comprehensive resource when you are looking for a variety of Playdough activities to do with your child. These activities are great to do at home, in a school setting, or at a daycare.
Playdough Activities for Preschoolers
Playdough activities can be great during the preschool years. During the preschool years your child’s hands are really starting to grow and develop. They are working on skills such as shoulder, arm, and hand strengthening, pincer grasp, finger isolation, thumb opposition, tripod grasp, hand eye-coordination, and bilateral coordination. Mama OT has a great post where she gives you specific examples of these skills and how you can work on them all while using Playdough!
Here are some to check out:
- 12 Simple Playdough Activities for Preschoolers by Mama OT
- Playdough Activities for Kids with Fun Ideas to Play and Learn by the Artful Parent
Playdough Activities for Toddlers
Using Playdough during the toddler years is a great sensory experience! Always be careful about them putting the Playdough in their mouth. If you are looking for a homemade recipe you could check this one out from Mama OT.
Here are some of the best ways to have your toddler explore Playdough:
- Smash it and squish it with their hands
- Smash it or squish it with a tool
- Pull it apart
- Roll it in their hands
- Roll it with a small rolling pin
- Use Cookie Cutters in the Playdough
- Poke it with their fingers
If you are looking or even more ideas, check out these great posts:
10 Play Dough Activities for Toddlers by Mama OT
16 Playdough Activities for Toddlers by My Board Toddler
9 Easy Toddler Learning Activities Using Play Dough by Keep Toddlers Busy
Learning with Playdough
There are so many different opportunities you can use Playdough to learn skills such as the alphabet letters, shapes, and numbers. You can also use Playdough to explore learning different emotions. Check out all of these great Playdough Activities to help your child learn specific skills.
Playdough Letter Activities
Letting your child explore Playdough while learning about letters is a great way to incorporate a hands on learning approach. They can feel the letters as they are making them. You could also have them poke or trace the Playdough after they form the letter to help give them more practice.
Check out these Letter and Alphabet Playdough Activiites:
Free Printable Alphabet Playdough Mats by Fun Learning for Kids
Letter Formation with Play Dough by Still Playing School
Number Playdough Activities
Using Playdough to learn and explore numbers is such a fun experience. Forming the numbers with Playdough allows the child to feel the way the number is formed and they are working on different hand skills as well. Using a Number Playdough mat is a great way to work on counting as well. You can form the number and then the shapes of the object and work on counting the numbers out loud as well.
You can check out my Ice Cream Number Playdough mats below! They were such a big hit with my 3 and 1 year old and we even enjoyed eating some ice cream while we played too! We pretended that we were opening an ice cream shop and we had to take orders of different ice cream cone orders.
Check out the Number Playdough Mats to Help Teach in a Fun Way to use Ice Cream Counting Playdough Activities!
Shapes with Playdough Activities
Making Shapes with Playdough can be a fun hands on way to learn all about different shapes. There are so many endless opportunities to make different shapes while playing. We love making circle pancakes, squares for houses, triangle pizza slices, and oval baby dinosaur eggs.
We have also started using Shape Playdough mats to really explore a variety of shapes while playing with our Playdough. Here are some that we are really enjoying right now!
Shape Playdough Mats from Fantastic Fun and Learning
Playdough Shapes Activity for Toddlers by I Can Teach My Child
Playdough faces and Emotions Activities
Making Playdough Faces is a great way to help teach your child about different emotions and the parts of the face! Playdough can be such a fun sensory experience with squishing the Playdough in their hands and forming the different face shapes! The activity allows you opportunities to talk about different emotions in a fun learning activity!
You can check out our Playdough faces activity to help teach your child about emotions and you can get your free Playdough Face Mats by entering your email below.
Fun and Simple Playdough Faces Activity to Help Teach Emotions and Feelings.
Themed Holiday Ideas for Playdough Activities
The holidays are a super fun way to explore some new creations with Playdough. Also using fun themes can be a great way for kids to get excited to explore Playdough in a new way! Check out some of these super fun Themed Playdough Activities!
Super Spooky and Fun Halloween Playdough Activities
Halloween is a fun way to explore using Playdough with new shapes and maybe new colors as well. You could use orange, black, and purple Playdough colors to make pumpkins, black cats, witches during the Halloween season.
Check out these super awesome Halloween Playdough Activities below:
Halloween Play Dough by Picklebums
Freakishly Fun Halloween Playdough Ideas by One Time Through
Playdough Monsters
Making monsters out of Playdough can be a fun and engaging activity for all kids! They can be super creative and make any type of monster they want. You could add googly eyes and pipe cleaners to help make the parts of the body. You could work on counting the number of eyes, legs, or arms on the monster.
Check out these super cute monster Playdough ideas below:
Monster Play Dough Invitation by Fantastic Fun and Learning
Playdough Monsters and Other Fun Ideas with Poke-Ins by the Artful Parent
Playdough Monsters Counting Activity by Messy Little Monster
Christmas Playdough Activities
Christmas time can be such a wonderful time to make some fun red and green Playdough creations. You can also make some fun gingerbread men, sugar cookie shapes, presents, Christmas tree designs, candy canes, and Santa faces. You can check out these super adorable Christmas time themed Playdough ideas.
Christmas Playdough Activities by Fantastic Fun and Learning
27 Christmas Playdough Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers by Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds
Winter Playdough Activities
The winter months can be hard if you live in cold weather and can’t get outside as much as you would like with kids. It is always a great idea to have some fun indoor activities for kids since the weather can be so unexpected. There are a lot of fun winter themed ideas you can explore with Playdough. You could make snowmen, an ice skating rink, snow balls, hats, mittens, and gloves, or create a winter scene. Check out these winter wonderland Playdough Activities below.
Winter Play Dough Activities by Fantastic Fun and Learning
How to Easily Make a Winter Playdough Tray by Early Learning Ideas
Easter Playdough Activities
Easter and spring time bring on a new warmer weather and they have some super fun creative designs you can make with Playdough. It is a great time to explore making Easter eggs, bunnies, chicks, flowers, rain drops, and ducks.
Here are some more inspiration and ideas for fun Easter Playdough activities:
Easter Playdough Activities by Fantastic Fun and Learning
Easter Playdough Activities for Toddlers by Happy Hooligans
Spring Playdough Activities
Spring time brings on warmer weather and some fun new shapes and items to explore and learn about. We love making flowers, mud, worms, planting a garden, and making baby animals during the spring months. You can check out these adorable spring time Playdough activities below you will love!
Spring Play Dough Activities by Fantastic Fun and Learning
Spring Play Dough Activities for Preschool by No Time For Flashcards
Playdough Activities for Fine Motor Skills
Working with and manipulating Playdough is a great way to develop hand strength and skills to help your child’s fine motor skills. You can work on shoulder, arm, and hand strengthening, pincer grasp, tripod grasp, bilateral coordination, finger isolation, thumb opposition, and hand-eye coordination. Check out these great resources if you are looking for specific ideas on how to help improve your child’s fine motor skills with Playdough activities.
20+ Playdough Activities to Develop Fine Motor Skills by the Stay at Home Educator
Improving Fine Motor Skills with Playdough Dough by Little Hands Pediatric Therapy
9 Great Play Dough Activities for Kids by the Inspired Treehouse
Fine Motor Activities with Play Dough by the OT Toolbox
Even more Playdough Ideas and the Benefits of Playdough
I have even more ideas for you! Check out these super awesome posts about the benefits of using Playdough to help your child with playing, learning, and development.
The Benefits of Playing with Playdough by Our Little House in the Country
Benefits of Playdough Activities by OT Mom Learning Activities