Playdough Activities for Toddlers

Making playdough is one thing but what comes after you make the pladough?

Playdough activities for toddlers are what come after and they are great because you are not only having fun playing with the playdough, you’re gaining the benefits of fine motor skills.

A playdough recipe is one thing. But, once you get the hang of what playdough activity to bring forth, your LO will have so much fun!

I’ll be sharing supplies you can most likely use and fun activities we just love that include our homemade playdough recipes, the benefits of sensory play and more!

See Also: Bug Preschool Theme Free Printable: 

What are the benefits of playing with playdough?

Children build on their fine motor development skills each time they squish, twist and making balls out of playdough.

Preschool Themes for the Entire Year: 

Not only are they gaining fine motor skills benefits while having fun, they are also gaining the benefits of:

• pincer grasp skills

• hand-eye coordination skillls

• grip strength

• hand muscles strength

• pre-writing skills

• sensorial benefits (sight, touch, smell)

• creative play

• language development

• bilateral coordination skills

• fine motor strength

• self expression

• imaginative play

• attention span

• great fine motor activity

There are so many benefits to playing with playdough it is incredible.

Use your imagination to come up with something creative while enjoying and gaining benefits.

I tell ya, this list of fun playdough activities are a treat for young children and kids of all ages.

What can playdough teach toddlers?

Playdough is a great sensory activity for young kids.

It is not only fun but it is filled with numerous benefits as mentioned above.

The main benefits that playdough time emits is the development of fine motor skills, using the imagination to come up with something creative, literacy and talking skills and more!

Playing with playdough can also be very educational.

Talk about the colors of the playdough to practice color recognition.

Roll the playdough into balls and count them from 1-10 to practice counting.

Mold and make letters out of the playdough to discuss letter recognition.

Make shapes out of the playdough, to learn about different shapes.

What other fun ideas can you think of that would make learning with playdough a great way to include in your playdough center?

How do you play playdough with a toddler?

• I love just removing the playdough from the Tupperware or container and placing a ball of playdough on a good work surface.

• Sometimes, I’ll add balls of different colors of playdough.

• Then, your toddler may grab one of the playdough balls.

• Talk about the color that he/she picked up and the shape of the playdough.

• You can mold this into your teaching lesson but the concept is simple – how to play with your toddler using playdough and in turn make it educational if you will.

• They may mold it into something they are thinking about like an airplane or truck or shape.

• Watch their imagination and creativity unfold and watch for literacy and vocabulary skills as they may be sure to come out. 🙂

See Also: Preschool Activity Binder

Is playdough a sensory activity?

It sure is!

A sensory activity is sensorial – you can sense it with any of the 5 senses.

Therefore, when playing and molding playdough you are not only using the sense of sight to see, you’re also using the sense of:

• Sense of touch

• Hear

• Smell

See Also: 5 Senses Activities Printable

These senses allow for playdough to be a wonderful sensory experience.

How to Make Playdough fun?

This is my favorite area to touch on.

I LOVE bringing in manipulatives, tools and supplies that make playdough fun.

Because, let’s face it – playing with playdough is fun but sometimes you want to boost it up a bit, right?

Once you make your very own playdough or use a store bought playdough, here are the everyday items we love bringing forth to give any playdough activity and extra boost of creativity:

• cookie cutters

• googly eyes

• loose parts

• small objects (3+)

• faux dinosaur fossils

• educational toys

• plastic animals

• zoo animals

• craft supplies

• a great toy

• plastic knives for cutting the rolled out dough

These are just some of my favorite ways to bring about creative ideas and juices flowing that will allow for a fantastic fun time!

Note: Adult supervision and use with most of these is advised.

We love adding some of these items to a playdough tray and then going all in as a fun activity.

We use googly eyes when making cute little squishy dough people for pretend play.

We’ll use cookie cutters to create cute seasonal items with playdough such as leaves, Christmas trees, hearts and snowmen.

We’ll even use my littles own toy cars and toy animals to create tracks and footprints for a fun pretend play scene.

On Halloween we love making ghosts out of white playdough for some spooky fun and a great time.

What are some of the ways you have brought about great ideas using basic ingredients and tools to get your child’s imagination going when playing with playdough?

Share with me your ideas below!

List of Playdough Activities

We love bringing forth an easy way and simple way to go about playdough play.

This list includes a perfect way to go about building on the child’s development and child’s imagination with different ways to play with play dough:

• Play Dough Mats (Counting 1-10)

• Seasonal Play Dough Mats

• Feather Color Sorting Activity

• Layers of the Earth

• DIY Foam Sticker Rolling Pin

• Spring Play dough Garden

• Tearing Paper Activities

• Shape Activities

• Letter Formation Activities

• Playdough Free Printable

All of these will work amazing in a preschool classroom because they toggle the child’s interest and allow for play based kid learning activities.

Younger kids won’t even know they are learning because they’ll also be playing.

Free play allows for a fun way for small children and older kids to use their imagination and creativity.

And, in turn they create an epic toddler approved set of keepsakes you’ll cherish for years and years to come! 🙂

Best Play Dough Recipes

• Ice Cream Playdough

• 2 Ingredient Playdough

• Peanut Butter Playdough

• Cloud Dough

• Peppermint Play dough Recipe

• Peeps Playdough Recipe

• Kool-aid Playdough

• Gold Play dough

• Apple Spice Play dough

How to make homemade play dough recipe?

Our tried and true playdough recipe that we absolutely love is this one:

• 1 cup of flour

• 1 cup of water

• 1/2 cup salt

• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

• 1 tbs coconut oil

• Mix, Knead and you’ve got dough!

This soft play dough recipe will last for a long time if it is stored correctly (in an airtight container or airtight ziplock bag).

The shelf life is max 6 months but we like to replace and start a new batch around 3-4 months. 

Adding a bit of food coloring is optional but if your looking to make rainbow playdough, then this is the way to go!

A garlic press is a neat tool to make playdough hair and long thin playdough (adult supervision advised).

When was the last time you made playdough?

Share with me any of your fun hands on activities and ideas below.

I’d love to learn and maybe we can try out something different, new and fun!

I hope you enjoyed this plethora of great activity ideas that include toddler activities and so much more.

Playdough is an amazing tool that leads to a great sensory experience.

There is never a wrong way to go about play dough and so it is one of those treasured activities we just will always love!

See also: Our Favorite Bundle for Preschool