Fun with Play Dough

Magic playdough:

1. Make up a batch of playdough and divide it into six balls.
2. In the middle of each ball of playdough hide some food colouring or powder paint (two balls each of red, yellow and blue).
3. Give your child a ball with yellow paint hidden in it and one with red. As they play the colours will appear and then combine to form orange. Magic!
4. Later they can combine red and blue to make purple and blue and yellow to make green. All the balls combined will form brown play dough.​

​Pinch Pot:

1. Roll the play dough into a palm-sized ball.
2. Let your child insert his/her thumb into the centre and use the index and middle fingers to pinch all around the pot.

Playdough snowman:

1. Roll three medium balls for the head and body.
2. Make a pinch pot for the hat.
3. Roll small balls for the eyes and buttons.
4. Roll a long sausage for the scarf.

Playdough penguin:

1. Make a pinch pot and turn it upside down for the body of the penquin.
2. Roll a medium ball for the head and two fat sausages (flatten) for the flippers.
3. Flatten a smallish ball to form the tummy and roll two small balls for the eyes with a tiny sausage forming the beak.

Playdough caterpillar:

1. Roll a number of balls for the segmented body.
2. Roll two tiny balls for the eyes and two sausages for the feelers.

Playdough octopus:

1. Roll one largish ball for the body, two small balls for the eyes and eight sausages for the legs.

Finger skittles:

1. Let your child roll a number of small balls with her/her playdough. Try to make the balls as smooth as possible as lumpy balls don’t roll straight.
2. Set up a row of targets (old film canesters, plastic pill bottles or toy soldiers).
3. Let your child make a circle with his/her thumb and middle fingers, flicking the middle finger out when shooting.
4. Ensure that your child rests his/her wrist on the floor/table while shooting.

Playdough necklace:

1. Make a batch of playdough.
2. Let your child roll the playdough into a sausage, cutting off 1cm pieces with a pair of scissors.
3. Let your child mould the pieces into interesting bead shapes.
4. Use a tooth pick/kebab stick to make a hole through the centre of each bead.
5. Bake the beads in a slow oven for 2-3 hours until they are hard and completely dry.
6. Let your child lace the beads on a string to make a necklace.

Give your child a colouring picture and let him/her “colour” the picture with the playdough, rolling little balls using the thumb, index and middle fingers and sticking them onto the paper inside the lines of the picture.

Use googly eyes and feathers to make playdough monsters.

Use leaves, lace or textured rolling pins to make prints in the playdough.