Playdough is our absolute favourite play resource. Its a fantastic sensory tool but without the mess associated with other sensory forms of play.

Now that I’m a mama of three, the playdough is out on a daily basis. So here are 10 invitations to play that all involve playdough…

1.Diggers and Dirt

Drive patterns in the dough, roll into balls for the diggers to scoop or even build a food pouch lid tower for the construction vehicles to knock down.

2.Colour Exploration

Use flowers, plastic lids or anything that takes your fancy to focus on one colour. Here we used yellow as a celebration of spring.

3.DIY playdough stampers

Use old lids from food jars to create your own makeshift stamper. Here we used shells, but you could also try making letters or numbers.

4.Counting Cakes

Learn one to one correspondence with the help of playdough cakes and gemstones. You could also try imprinting letters or numbers into the dough for an alternative.

5.Flower Garden

Here we squished playdough into an empty ice-cube tray, then Z did some flower arranging with an old bouquet.

6.Footprints

A fun way for little learners to explore how animal footprints differ to our own. You could do this with any animal figurines that you have.

7. Bird Nest

Squish playdough into a shallow bowl shape to help little ones understand habitats and animal homes.

8. Lunchbox Portables

Going away for a weekend? Try packing up playdough for a simple play activity that wont mean you lose your deposit. Here we did a mermaid theme because we were going to the coast, but use what you have.

9. Playdough Bakery

Okay so pretty similar to the counting cakes, but it’s a popular option in our house! We had a dolly tea party with these ‘cakes’ as a special treat.

10. Making Faces

Who doesn’t love a googly eye? This is a versatile activity that can be used as monsters (Halloween) or even to explore emotions.