Suitable for 3-6 years Playdough activities: children 3-6 years

 Playdough activities: why they’re good for children

Playdough is a wonderful sensory and learning experience for children.

As your child shapes the playdough into a ball or a snake, they’re thinking creatively. The squeezing, pinching and pulling movements also strengthen your child’s hand muscles and develop their fine motor skills.

And if you give your child some tools and toys to add to the playdough activity, you can really spark your child’s imagination and creativity.

What you need for playdough activities

Bought or homemade playdough – see the recipes below

Tools for cutting, shaping and making patterns – for example, paddle-pop sticks, plastic knives and forks, rolling pins, cookie cutters and so on

Things for imaginative play – for example, plastic animals, toy cars, natural objects like sticks and seashells, or pretend baking equipment like muffin trays or cake tins

How to play with playdough

Your child can play with playdough anywhere, but it’s best to sit your child at a table. This gives your child a good work surface and can stop things from getting too messy. You can use a plastic placemat if you want to keep the surface clean.

Give your child objects to use for making patterns in the playdough. For example, your child could use a fork to make a dot pattern. Your child could press a seashell into the playdough or make tracks with a toy car.

Encourage imaginative play with muffin trays and pretend baking equipment. For example, your child could pretend they’re making a cake with the playdough.

Give your child plastic animals to use with the playdough. For example, your child could make a lake for the ducks or roll some playdough into balls to make apples for a horse.

Make playdough people with your child. Your child can bend them into different poses. Or your child can squish them up and start again if they want to.

https://raisingchildren.net.au/preschoolers/play-learning/low-cost-play-ideas/playdough-activities