Layers of the Earth Project using Playdough 

We love playdough especially when they involve fun science projects. 

This project is a very easy and a simple activity that incorporates learning about the layers of the Earth. 

To learn how we made it and how we used this playdough to learn about the Earths core, the crust and mantle, I’ll be sharing it all below! 

Have you checked out some of our other playdough activities? 

Here are four of our previous playdough activities: 

• Best Playdough Recipe 

• Foam Sticker Rolling Pin DIY

• Kool aid Playdough

And for some of our fun preschool science activities: 

• Baking Soda/Vinegar STEM Activity

• Magic Milk Activity

• Traveling Waters STEM Experiment

Note: Because Earth Day is around Easter, you may want to check out, “How to dye Brown Eggs for Easter”!

Materials: 

This post contains affiliate links. 

• Playdough (We used green and blue playdough to make Earth)

• Playdough cutting tool

Easy peasy and simple! 

How to make playdough into a fun layers of the Earth project

Here are the steps we took to put this simple kids activity together: 

• First, roll a small red ball with playdough. (This is known as the core of the Earth)

• Then, roll orange into a ball Flatten it out on a table. 

• Insert the red ball into the flattened orange playdough and roll it together until the red playdough is taken over by the orange playdough. 

• You should have an orange ball that is slightly bigger now. 

• Then, repeat this process with the colors: yellow, brown and blue. (I share below how we made our brown playdough.)

• The playdough ball should keep getting bigger the more colors you add to it.

• Finally, add pieces of green onto the blue ball. 

• You’ve created an Earth using playdough! 

Now, the fun part: Use your playdough cutting tool to cut directly in the middle of the Earth dough ball. 

Once fully cut in the middle you will notice the Earth’s core, crust and mantle and you can talk about these and learn about them with your LO. 🙂 

DIY Layers of the Earth Playdough Project for Kids Video

How to make brown playdough

Brown playdough is just a mixture of 3 different playdough colors. 

Here are the steps I used to create a brown playdough: 

• I mixed a 1:1 ratio of red and yellow. 

• Once it was fully mixed it created the color orange. 

• Then, I added in a bit of blue. 

• You can start with ¼ of blue and work your way up until you achieve the color brown. 

Looking for more STEM projects you can try with your LO’s? 

Check out this Rain cloud activity that involves learning about how clouds are formed in the sky! 🙂 

It is a great method of teaching how clouds form in layman’s terms for kids!

What other fun activities have you tried using playdough? Any fun STEM activities for kids you’d like to share below? 

Leave a comment and maybe we can try it out too! 🙂 

I hope you enjoy and Happy Learning!