1. Fine Motor Skill Development: great for strengthening muscle tone in little hands – squishing, squashing, rolling, flattening play dough all develop children’s muscles and encourage prewriting and other skills such as cutting with a scissors, using a tweezers, holding a pencil etc.
2. Calming and therapeutic: simply sitting and squashing and rolling a piece of playdough in your hand is a very calming and soothing activity. For years I have been giving children playdough “stress” balls in class as a way of easing tension, releasing extra energy, improving focus and concentration. Can be a great outlet for children to express their emotions
3. Creativity and imagination: the possibilities for playdough play are limitless – my kids love to create all sorts of things with playdough – some days they create monsters and aliens, on other occasions they have made cupcakes, pizzas, gardens, houses, Christmas decorations. I love to provide them with a wide variety of materials to use with the playdough, inspiring creativity and encouraging use of their imaginations.
4. Develops hand-eye co-ordination: by using a variety of materials and objects in playdough play can enhance hand-eye co-ordination.
5. Social skills: any activity where children are hands-on involved creates a fantastic opportunity for developing social skills. Playing with play dough in small groups and or with adults presents lots of possibilities for talk and discussion, playing collaboratively, problem solving and planning with others. Encourage your children to describe what they are doing while they play.
6. Literacy and Numeracy development: we have used playdough for a variety of literacy and numeracy activities – it’s a great fun way of involving children in literacy and numeracy activities, some of which you can see in our Prewriting Activities.
7. Promotes Play: allows children to be children, to slow down and play, using a range of their senses and skills.
Ingredients
- 2 tbs cooking oil
- 4 tbs Cream of Tartar
- 2 cups plain flour
- 1 cup salt
- Food coloring
- 2 cups water
Mix all the ingredients in a saucepan and stir over medium heat for 3-5 minutes, until the mixture congeals into playdough.