Tag: Playdough

Decorate the Cookies Playdough Mat

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If you have followed my blog for any amount of time, you know that I adore playdough. I love the texture, smell, and versatility. It is my favorite “surprise activity” to calm down rambunctious kiddos or focus free spirits.

Playdough mats are a wonderful way to inspire your readers’ creativity!

One of our favorite Christmas activities is decorating cut out cookies and taking them to all our neighbors. The kids love the cookie cutters, colorful icing, and sprinkles! For our Christmas in July theme I decided to take that same idea and turn it into a playdough activity that can be done anytime. Check out this fun cookie plate full of cookies ready to be decorated! And no baking necessary!

Grab the FREE printable, HERE!

Pull our different colors of playdough (or get super fancy and make your own!!) , cookie cutters, and tools. Then, get to work! I love that their creations are different every time. The uniqueness and creativity is my favorite part!

I highly recommend laminating your playdough mats so that the playdough doesn’t stick to the paper.

PRO TIP – print this free printable playdough mat and one of our other Christmas playdough mats. Then, put the pages back to back before using your laminator. Now you will have a 2-sided play dough mat that will keep your kiddos busy for hours!

Happy Decorating!!

Growing a Flower Garden Playdough Mat

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Playdough play is a wonderfully fun activity full of developmental benefits, including these:

  • Playdough play aids in fine motor skills development while littles build muscles needs for prewriting, cutting, and more.
  • It is calming and therapeutic while they squash, shape, and squeeze away any tension or extra energy.
  • Playdough play inspires creativity and imagination while also emphasizing hand-eye coordination.
  • It also can aid in social skill development as children plan and problem solve with others, play collaboratively, and talk and discuss their creations.

I have loved playdough since I was a tiny tot so anytime my kiddos want to dive into those cans of salt dough, I am game! The addition of playdough mats has really encouraged my kiddos to get more creative with the dough as they try to form and shape it into the “right” shape for their specific work. They seem to work harder at conceptualizing what they want to make and then molding it to fit their vision when they have a mat as a background.

For #GardenWeek, I just knew we needed to grow a playdough garden! Right now we have tons of flowers blooming with riotous color that make perfect inspiration for our creations. However, this activity would also be fantastic to pull out during the winter doldrums while we are all dreaming of spring.

You can grab the FREE printable, print, and laminate it and have your kiddos creating while you make dinner! I found myself focused on flower making, but I think that dirt really needs a worm or two! Maybe even a butterfly or the sun could be peeking in the sky!

I love all the color, dimension, and variations that can be created. If you pull this mat out 100 times, I am willing to be 100 different masterpieces will be created!

Don’t forget to grab the FREE printable HERE.

I cannot wait to see what creations your littles come up with!

Happy Growing!