1. Have your child create "Play-dough Cookies"! Form shapes out of the play-dough and allow your little one to press buttons (or pony beads / any other small colorful objects) into the "cookies" to decorate them. For more advanced play you could let them use a real cookie cutter to make different shaped "cookies"!
My daughter loved this activity. She was very serious about placing the button exactly where she wanted. She even decided to put only yellow buttons on the yellow play-dough for a little while. She also enjoyed being able to move the button around from "cookie" to "cookie".
My daughter loved this activity. She was very serious about placing the button exactly where she wanted. She even decided to put only yellow buttons on the yellow play-dough for a little while. She also enjoyed being able to move the button around from "cookie" to "cookie".
2. Go on a nature hike (or just a walk around the block!) and and let your toddler collect different items that she may find on the way! When you get home have your little one make impressions of the different natural things that they found. Have them press each item into the play-dough. This is an excellent opportunity to discuss textures! Have your child explain to you why the different leaves are different (some with ridges, some smooth, some big, some small)!
*** You may want to rinse off some items so as not to get your play-dough dirty! I learned this the hard way with a piece of red mulch that my daughter picked up!
*** You may want to rinse off some items so as not to get your play-dough dirty! I learned this the hard way with a piece of red mulch that my daughter picked up!
3. I saw this on Pinterest and decided to give it a try. You need a few pieces of raw spaghetti and fruit loops to do this activity. You use the Play-Dough to act as a base to stick the spaghetti in. Then your child can practice eye/hand coordination by threading the fruit loops down the spaghetti. For a more advanced activity use multiple Play-Dough bases and encourage your child to match the fruit loop colors to the spaghetti with the correct base.
4. This was my favorite activity that we did this week! I created a Play-Dough Dots worksheet. Then my Little One was able to pull off pieces of play-dough and press the pieces into the correct dots on the worksheet. This activity uses both fine motor skills as well as color matching. I had her tell me the name of each color as she did the activity. She had a blast and I enjoyed watching her. When I set up this activity she immediately knew what to do without me giving her any directions. She just started matching the colors all by herself!.
5. For this activity I found a few different cookie cutter shapes. I let my Little One use the cookie cutters to make different shapes from the play-dough. She played with the cookie cutters for the longest of any of the play-dough activities. She loved telling me what color and shape she made! She was able to describe thin gs like "blue star" or "small heart"! We had so much fun playing together!