Fine Motor
SensoryAll Ages45 Comments
Stuck for something to do that’s creative, imaginative, and interactive? Try these easy ideas of things to make or do with play dough to pretend, create and learn!
Play dough. We’ve made tracks with trucks and smooshed balls.
But then we got stuck. Until I found all these creative and cool things to make and ways to play with our dough!
35+ Ideas to Pretend, Create & Learn with Play Dough
No more excuses to skip the play dough! Now I’ve got lots of easy ideas to think outside the box for creative play.
Add a little science to your play dough with a cool homemade play dough recipe!
Play dough will never be boring again!
Pretend with Play Dough:
Play dough makes a great jumping off place for pretend play! Try these 6 creative ideas to get started.
- DIY a construction site from Teach Preschool.
- Create your very own pizzeria like The Imagination Tree.
- Make a play dough cake shop from Preschool Play.
- Create a little island together like The Chocolate Muffin Tree shares with us.
- Try your baking skills with a pretend play bakery from Imagination Soup.
- Grab some leaves and make a play dough hair salon.
- Frugal Fun 4 Boys shares a fun digging in play dough activity.
- Try some fine motor practice and pretend with play dough, hammer and golf tees!
- Scoop and serve with a DIY ice cream shop.
Make & Create Ideas with Play Dough:
Play dough is perfect for creative art projects. Let your child’s imagination soar with these 6 activities of things to make and do with play dough!
- Get wild with not so scary monster creations from Fantastic Fun and Learning.
- DIY your own hungry caterpillars like The Chocolate Muffin Tree.
- Squashed Tomatoes shows how to make your own little play dough snail friends.
- Why not design your own little robots like Counting Coconuts.
- Build a tiny little play dough nest with Kids Activities Blog.
- No Time for Flash Cards has a fun play dough faces activity.
- Go exploring and create your own bug fossils like Plain Vanilla Mom.
- Decorate at home with DIY play dough suncatchers!
- Turn your play dough into the canvas and draw on it like Home Grown Friends.
Ideas of Things to Add to Play Dough:
Know what’s fun? Mixing things into play dough!
Try these creative additions to your next play dough adventures.
- Explore with spaghetti like Having Fun at Home.
- Add in mini umbrellas like Crayon Freckles.
- Nature Store gets crafty with straws.
- Or why not try building with the straws.
- No straws… Try building with toothpicks like Play Based Classroom.
- Add sprinkles like Mama Instincts and make some tasty looking cookies.
- Get sparkly and try adding glitter like Simply So Good.
- Mama Papa Bubba added sea shells to make a beach theme.
- You can add simple sticks and make monsters, people or snowmen like Fun Learning for Kids did.
- Add gems to create jewelry and treasures like No Time for Flash Cards.
Ways to Learn with Play Dough:
Play dough is a great teaching and learning tool. Make letters, numbers, and patterns to help your child learn early academic skills!
- Check out this inherited traits and genetics learning activity from 2 Kids 2 Guinea Pigs.
- Work on cutting and scissors skills from Tot School.
- Match colors and strengthen fine motor with this beads push in activity.
- Make animal outlines and match prints with this activity from Confidence Meets Parenting.
- Work on color recognition with this cute turkey play dough activity.
- Mom to 2 Lil Posh Divas shares an easy building words activity.
- Teach about textures with Kids Activities Blog.
- Trace to spell your name with play dough for name recognition ideas and fine motor practice.
- Trace shapes with a shapes mat from Royal Baloo.
- Work on counting with dice and play a play dough monster making game together.
- Learn basic fractions with Lucky Little Learners.
- Do a little more counting with eggs and nest for more math learning from The Art Kit.
I’ve found that homemade play dough is far superior to the store-bought kind.
It’s softer, lasts longer and you can make whatever color you like just for that day. Not to mention adding fun ingredients to the mix!
Busy Play: Play Dough Construction Site
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39 Edible Sensory Play Ideas for Little Kids
10 Messy Play Ideas and Tips to Keep it Clean
25 Ways to Build Towers Without Blocks
Amy Davis says
Thank you for these ideas! I found a few on here my grandbabies will have fun doing together. I have a 4 year old and almost 2 year old granddaughter and grandson and they love play dough! This and sand and WATER… (Not all at the same time) but these 3 activities on different days keeps them busy and entertained for a long time! Oh and slime too!
lilutek says
i love doing things with playdoh and i looked to a lot of websites to make cool things and i have it
Marisa says
This is really good thank you® it made it much better for me to find x
Jessica says
My play doh isn’t boring enymore it’s verry fun to play with
Emily says
I love play-doh I play with it all the time I don’t care if I’m 12 and a little old for it I mean find your kidult
Hc89 says
I know right! I’m 10 (not that old yet) but I still like to play with play dough. I’ve figured out how to make something no one knows about(I think).
lilutek says
i am nearly 12 and i love playdoh too! i dont care what people think😉i am from Poland by the way:)
Brocho says
I gave each child a cookie tray and had make whatever they wanted in it. We then took pictures. They liked the feeling that it was contained.
maryum says
all these ideas are very nice and unique compared to mine
maryanne @ mama smiles says
This post is the precisely why play dough is ALWAYS popular in my house – there are so many ways to play with it!
Jamie Reimer says
Thanks Maryanne!
Pamela Lindsey says
As a preschool teacher I love getting new ideas to enhance my sensory center. Thanks!
Bill says
You have some excellent ideas here, I really appreciate all your effort.
This has given me some fresh ideas for my site, thank you.
Nicole says
I love this list…thanks my kids love playdough…one we do that their great uncle actually taught them is playdough jewellery—my little girl Liberty loves her playdough rings, watches, anklets, earrings, and ponytail holders–(over the already existing elastics of course)..she feels like such a princess when she is all done…my son likes to make the funny mustaches, bears, eye brows, nose rings (like Melvin when he became the witch doctor in madagascar), glasses etc…human pototo head….but I love alot of yours to add to our small list of things to do with playdough…
jess says
These are fantastic ideas! Wow, thanks for sharing these. I found this post via Pinterest.
Can’t wait to play play dough with some of these ideas!
Thanks again,
Jess
Shannon says
Thanks for the link! I love this collection and love seeing all these Play-Doh ideas!
Lisa Jay says
play dough is a regular part of our weeks & has been for 4 years. I love your lists of posts here http://www.bylisajay.com/create-play/
Anonymous says
Love all the ideas… wish I had seen this before,but in the end it worked out great. I kinda did the reverse last time we had playdough out, no accessories, no color mixing, no tools of any kind… Day one "where are the cookie cutters?" all they did is make "pancakes" by smushing the dough flat. day 2 can we have scissors… mix colors… take it to the kitchen… and so it went. However I noticed each day the children got better with their hands, making coils/ snakes, balls and even modeling real life items, one child made a helicopter, blades and all. There was talk about all kinds of stuff while they simply manipulated the dough, kinda theraputic, keeping hands busy with out a goal, and brains free to think. On the last day I gave in and got out the cookie cutters and poof all creativity turned to "I had that one first"
I have to try some of the posted ideas, Spaghetti for sure. Thanks for getting me thinking again about this old stand-by
Jen says
Im 23 and have massive anxiety issuesi was on a lot of medicine for it. Play doh was so therapeutic for me that i got over some of my issues via playing with the play doh.
Anonymous says
Great! Thanks for sharing!
Heidi says
Thanks for featuring my dirt play dough! Can't wait to check out all of the other dough posts. The possibilities are endless!
Ellie says
Thanks for leaving such a lovely comment on my blog – play dough is so great isn't it? Thanks also for hosting It's Playtime, it fab, I love it!
Ellie says
What an inspiring list of ideas! Thanks so much for letting me link up to this fabulous post in my blog.
Feel free to pop by if you have a minute.
http://createwithyourhands.blogspot.com/2011/09/play-dough-happy-birthday-cake.html
Paige says
don't forget electric circuits!
had so much fun exploring these with my preschoolers.
Play-based Classroom says
You're amazing! Thank you for this list! And thanks for featuring our playdough and toothpicks post! :)
Melissa @ The Chocolate Muffin Tree says
Thanks for featuring some ideas of mine! You make the greatest lists! Yay for play dough! This will be good to repost again for the Winter when everyone is cooped up in their house!
Betti Buza says
My kids love making hedgehogs with playdough + toothpicks and we quite often use cookie-cutters, too. We use playdough to learn English as a second language at home, too. Here you can see how we learnt "Hey Diddle Diddle" with the help of playdough:
http://www.bebeangol.hu/node/219
Julia Deering says
Great ideas for play dough play here. We made Disco Dough a few weeks ago – and my four year old worked the glitter into the still warm dough. Glorious stuff. Here's what she did with it if you fancy a quick look:-
http://home-adventurer.blogspot.com/2011/08/disco-dough.html
Beansprouts says
Thanks Jamie…I'm definitely bookmarking this post!!!
Deborah says
Thanks for including play dough under construction – adding tools to playdough makes such a fun experience! Off to check out all the other ideas too!
Mommy Cameron @ Learning with the Cameron Clan says
I love it! A lot of great ideas. My boys love to use cookie cutters in our play dough.
Scott says
Wonderful collection of ideas. I love play dough – and now I love it more.
Melissa Taylor says
you were busy putting this all together! Amazing lady!!!
Anna @ The Imagination Tree says
Fantastic round up, as usual! Thanks for including mine!
Kate @ Puddles and Gumboots says
Really great play-dough wrap up. Every inspiration you need to break out the play-dough
Art For Little Hands says
love love love this post. I sent my two older kids to school today. I am definitely making some play dough for me and the two year old to enjoy today! Thanks for all the inspiration.