Inside: Learn about simple and easy Playdough creations to have fun and connect with your child.

Playdough has so many endless opportunities to play with! We love coming up with new Playdough ideas to help expand the play ideas and my kids imagination. We love to roll the Playdough into small pieces, roll it into snake shapes, smash it on the table, or mix in new colors. We put together a list of some of our favorite ways to play with Playdough.

Playdough Ideas

Playing with Playdough has so many endless opportunities! It can feel overwhelming sometimes though because there are a lot of different options. I love trying to choose Playdough activities that the child is interested in or finding new ways to play.

I wanted to create a go to resource for when you are needing more Playdough Ideas or new ways to add more fun to your Playdough play adventures.

Simple and Fun Playdough Creations

We put together some of our favorite Simple Playdough Creations! Check them all out below.

Playdough creations

Making Monsters

We love making little monsters with Playdough and adding in googly eyes and pipe cleaners for arms and legs.

Building things with Toothpicks

We love building different shapes and structures by adding toothpicks to our play! We just roll the Playdough into small balls to connect the toothpicks and to create new shapes and buildings.

Making Imprints

We love using toy figures, cars, animal feet, letters and number stamps to make imprints into the Playdough. We use our little rolling pin and get the Playdough flat then add in little imprints. We love to guess what we used to make the imprints as well.

Making Food Items

We love making new food items out of Playdough. We love to make pancakes, pizza, ice cream scoops, cake, and pies out of Playdough.

Making Animals

We love coming up with new ways to make animals with our Playdough. We love making snakes, snails, turtles, dogs, cats, dinosaurs, and bunnies out of our Playdough.

Tire tracks in the Playdough

Cars are a super fun addition to our Playdough! We love making tire tracks in the Playdough.

Making Train and Car Prints Puzzles

Trains and cars have been a super fun addition to Playdough. We make imprints of the bottoms or sides the cars or trains and then create a puzzle for the child to match the correct car or train to the imprint. We get to play detective and it is so much fun!

Dinosaur Fossils

Making dinosaur imprints in the Playdough is another great activity especially if your child loves to play with dinosaurs!

Adding Mr. Potato Head Pieces

Another fun one is adding Mr. Potato head pieces to a Playdough made potato to create fun and silly faces and bodies.

Check out these resources for even more Playdough Ideas:

Are you looking for some fun Playdough mats to help your child? Get your free number Playdough mats below by entering your email address.

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Super fun things to add to Playdough to Expand the Play

We love adding loose parts to our Playdough creations to expand the play experience! My first tip when playing with Playdough is to start simple and then add in loose parts to help expand the play.

When we play with Playdough we like to add in:

  • pony beads
  • pipe cleaners
  • popsicle sticks
  • golf tees
  • googly eyes
  • gems
  • dried spaghetti
  • pom poms
  • sequins
  • tiny toy figures
  • buttons

If you are looking for even more things you can add to your Playdough Creations check out 75+ Things to Add to Playdough to Make it More Fun by No Time for Flash Cards.

Two kids rolling out Playdough

Pretend Play with Playdough Ideas

Ice Cream Shop

Ice cream is such a fun and easy thing to make with playdough. We love adding little bowls and spoons and pretending to take ice cream orders.

Restaurant

When we play with Playdough at the kitchen table we love to make a little restaurant. We have someone take orders and someone make the food items out of Playdough. It is so fun to see your child’s creativity.

Feeding Animals

We have a lot of animal figures and we love to create a little farm set up or zoo set up. Then we make food items out of the Playdough and feed the animals. This is great to act out different animal sounds and to learn about what foods the animals eat.

Construction Trucks Building Site

My son absolutely loves construction trucks. We love creating a little building site area with dump trucks and excavators. We make small rocks and dirt piles with the Playdough for the trucks to build and dump with.

Dino Dig Site

We also really enjoy playing with dinosaurs. We love creating a little dig site where we burry the dinosaurs in the Playdough “dirt” and we have to dig them out. We get to talk about the different dinosaurs and it creates a fun atmosphere.

Playdough Ideas for Pinterest Graphic with Playdough Snails and gumballs

Educational Learning Ideas

There are endless opportunities to add specific learning opportunities to your Playdough play adventures.

Patterns

You could create different patterns out of Playdough “balls” for the child to work on copying.

Different Sizes

You could use different sized cookie cutters or just make different sizes of shapes you are making out the Playdough. You could discuss which ones are small, medium, and large.

Colors

We love mixing different Playdough colors tougher to see what new color we can create. You could work on mixing colors and having your child guess which color you will make.

Counting

As you are playing with different Playdough shapes you could work on counting how many your child makes. For example if you are making animal food or food items for a pretend play restaurant you could count how many food items you are making.

Shapes

You could work on making different shapes out of Playdough and have your child identity the shapes you are making.

Making Letters

You could roll the Playdough int a “snake” shape and have your child form different letters out of the Playdough.

Making Numbers

Have your child roll the Playdough into a “snake” shape and have your child form different numbers. If your child loves ice cream as much as mine do, you could use these FREE Ice Cream Number Playdough Mats to help give your child a visual on how to form the different numbers. Get your FREE copy by entering your email below.

Number Playdough Mats Counting Ice Cream Cones display images of printable

Roll the Dice Game

If you have a dice you could have your child roll the dice and see which number they get. Then they can form small “balls” out of the Playdough and make the correct number according to the dice.

Cutting with Scissors

Using Playdough scissors of kids scissors you can roll the Playdough into different shapes and work on cutting it. We love to play hair shop by rolling the Playdough into “snakes” and then trimming the hair with the scissors.

Writing your Name

You could model how to form the letters of your child’s name with Playdough and have them make their name as well.

Benefits of Playdough 

There are so many different benefits to playing with 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.

7 Benefits of Playing with Playdough by Sunshine House

The Benefits of Playdough for Early Childhood by Parenting Chaos

Playdough Ideas for fine motor skills

child using small rolling pin to roll out Playdough

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.

Playdough Activities

If you loved these Playdough Ideas and would love to have even more ideas for your toolbox. Be sure to check out all of these Fun and Creative Playdough Activities to Help Kids Learn!

Playdough Mats

If you are looking fore more visuals or ways to keep exploring and learning with Playdough, I have put together an amazing resource full of Playdough Mats. Check out these Playdough Mats to Help your Child Learn and Develop Fine Motor Skills!

Playdough Kits

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