BEST PLAYDOUGH TOOLS THAT YOU ALREADY HAVE IN YOUR HOME
Playdough is fun but can get bit messy .Its the most loved toy that every child would love to play with and is great for buying as presents and goody bags too.Once your child learns how to mould it from an early age then there are endless benefits of it .Playdough comes in wide variety of colours and scents attracting the kids.The best play dough is the one you can easily make at home without worrying about chemicals .I have a simple playdough recipe which I cant remember where I got it from but is easy to make.
PLAYDOUGH RECIPE
INGREDIENTS:
- 4 cups plain flour
- 2cups salt
- 4 tbsp cream of tartar
- 4tbsp oil
- 4 cups boiling water
- glitter and food colouring.
METHOD:Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl besides water and now add water gradually until you reach the desired consistency .Sprinkle in some colour or glitter .Mix well and knead.Your playdough is ready to play!(store it in an airtight container after playing with it).
Here is another recipe to try if you want to make playdough in less quantity
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 cup white flour
- 1/2 cup salt
- 2 tbsp cream of tartar
- 1 tbsp water
- food colouring
METHOD:Mix all the above ingredients and store in an airtight container.You can also add some cocoa powder for giving chocolate scent or maybe lavender oil with purple food colouring or simply add few drops of vanilla eesence to white playdough.
BENEFITS OF PLAYING WITH PLAYDOUGH
Playdough activity is fun and engaging and can keep the kids busy for hours.I used to make home made playdough for my kids when they were small and didnt have to worry much if they would eat it (but luckily none of them bothered to even taste it 😉)
- Playdough is excellent for childs fine motor skills.
- It boosts their creativity and imagination.
- Playdough is good to build up their concentration.
- Good for teaching letters and numbers through moulding.
- Playdough activity reduces stress and relaxes kids especially an anxious child.
- It build up eye hand coordination.
- Playdough moulding,pinching,squeezing and cutting is good for hand muscles and prepares the child to hold the pencil and good for their writing journey.
- Its good for their sensory development.They can feel the soft texture by their hand and smell the different playdough scents,They also feel different playdough textures when u add some elements to your playdough such a rice,pulses,pasta etc....
- Playdough activity builds social skills in children by sharing the playdough and also their ideas.
- They experience making 2 dimentional and 3 dimentional objects.
BEST HOUSEHOLD TOOLS THAT YOU CAN USE TO ADD TO YOUR PLAYDOUGH KIT
My kids love playdough just like i do.We have heaps of playdough plus box full of its tools and accessories.we also like to use some house hold items with playdough to create unique stuff.I also create a play tray with different compartments to use with playdough and keep on changing the accessories kids need everytime they want to play with it.Sometimes it can be nature related theme and we add pine cones,twigs,small pebbles or maybe flowers.It could also have some random craft supplies such as googly eyes,toothpicks,marbles,buttons and gems such as in the picture below .
10 BEST PLAYDOUGH TOOLS THAT WE ENJOY USING!
Playdough is the best toy that kids dont get bored with and even adults love to create things with it.Kids love to have open ended play with it and with our guidance they can create amazing masterpieces!
Here are some tools that we add to our playdough tray along with other accessoriess.
1:FOAM STAMPS:
I purchased foam stamps when my eldest was 1.5 year old and who is in grade 10 now.He used to love stamping by using paints and then my other kids also used it .Now we use those stamps with playdough and kid can create interesting scences with playdough .
2:EMPTY DRINK BOTTLES:
I like to sollect recyclable stuff and we use the base of the bottles to create flower or other shaped impressions by pressing the bottle on the flattened playdough.
3:GOOGLY EYES:
These are popular craft items and are also a hit with playdough as kids use them to make characters or even funny googly eye monsters.
4:CUTTERS:
Cutters are quick and easy to use and they are best for toddlers when they are learning to play with playdough for the first time .They can also cut out different shapes with shape cutters or even letters or numbers and can learn them in a fun way.
5:BOTTLE LIDS:
These are also interesting to create impressions with .Kids can make many impressions and create a unique picture out of it such as flowers or a house.
6:ROLLERS,SCISSORS AND ROLLING PIN:
Scissors are great tool to use with playdough and are best for kids to practice cutting skills by rolling a snake with playdough and then cutting it..Always make sure that you give them plastic scissors and not the sharp ones.Cutting playdough is much more easier for little one than cutting the paper and that is why you should give kids playdough at an early age along with scissors so that they can master those skills by the time they are 4 years old.
7:TOOTHPICKS:
Im sure every household has toothpicks and it can be a fantastic addition to kids playdough tray.They can use it to make hand and feet along with playdough body,or even add toothpicks for spikes of a dinosaur or hedgehog or,and maybe use those for hair of a person.They can simply roll small balls of playdough and add toothpicks to it to create 2 or 3 dimensional shapes which is a popular STEM activity to get them involved.
8:SKEWERS:
This is another household item that is great when we press it on top of a playdough ball and kids do beading by threading wooden or plasic beads onto it.Its a great eye hand coordination activity for them and this activity helps them to develop pencil grip as they are using their thumb and fore finger to handle the wooden bead and thread it onto a skewer.You can also ask them to make a bead pattern on the skewer if they are little bit older such as one red one white bead to thread or some other pattern.You can also use this activity for teaching addition to them but asking them to thread some beads and adding some more to solve the sums.
9) LEGO:
I also give my younger one some spare Legos to create different impressions and toddlers can use Duplo pieces to create prints .If we give them straws also they can create any STEM challenge by using the Duplos to create prints and then inserting straws in the holes of Duplo to maybe make buildings
.
10) PLAYDOUGH MATS:
There are lots of printable playdough mats available on the internet if you google them. You can print them out and use them according to the child's age group .You can find printable mats for alphabets, numbers, shapes, colors and a lot more. I printed out a printable cupcake mat for my daughter and she enjoys decorating the cupcakes with her playdough and adds sequences to decorate it .When she was younger I gave her the face printable playdough mats such as brother, sister, mum and dad and she used to add playdough hair ,eyes ,nose and mouth to complete the picture and she enjoyed it a lot. You can also find some printables on google and enjoy with your child!!
Kids can also use playdough to make pretend food and have tea parties
Hope you like this post.please tell me in the comments how you use playdough to do activity with kids!!
