Since play dough can be used for so many things, I have created a list of the 25 best education activities to use with it! Kids of all ages love play dough! Even adults find themselves having fun with it! Play dough can be used for sensory play, which toddlers need to build fine motor skills. Skills they will need in their early years of education. According to A Physical Therapist Jonathan Rodil, “Fine motor skills are important for supporting independence with dressing, feeding, eating and performance in school.” Early toddler activities to support these fine motor developments are important to help build up the strengths in their little fingers. Their little fingers that are expected to do so much!
This post includes affiliate links. If you purchase something through it, I may receive a small commission, no cost to you.
Here are some play dough activities to support toddlers and young children that help with fine motor skills and will build their readiness for school.
Play dough activities for alphabet and numbers
- Play dough abc mat: You can make little balls and put them along each letter to create it. Or make the dough thin and skinny like a worm, and create the letters.
2. Play dough word mat: Using play dough to make simple sight words is a great way to reach the kinesthetic learner.
3. Play dough 123 mat: These number mats help with number forming as well as one to one representation. Your little one will have so much fun making balls to count and make numbers.
4. Play dough count and smash: (from Stir the Wonder) These mats help your toddler have fun with counting and also works on sensory and fine motor skills.
5. Play dough number and letter stamp: Stamp the letters and numbers into the play dough to help your toddler learn their numbers and letters. This also builds muscle strength in hand and arm.
6. Letters with play dough and straws (from kids activities.com) This sensory based alphabet learning station supports the kinesthetic learner, the tactile learner and the child that needs sensory input. By placing the straws in the letters, your child’s arm and hand muscles are being strengthened.
Play dough ideas using shapes
7. Play dough shape cutters: Roll the play dough flat and have fun identifying and creating shapes. Rolling and pressing the cutter also helps to build muscle strength.
8. Play dough shapes mat: (from Fantastic Fun and Learning). Have your child create shapes with these fun and entertaining shape mat ideas.
9. 3D play dough shapes: This video shows you how to make 3D shapes using play dough and toothpicks. Perfect for school!
Play dough to practice scissor skills
10. Scissor cutting with patterns and lines (from Modern Preschool) Practice cutting with scissors will help improve the fine motor in your child’s hand and fingers.
11. Strengthening scissor cutting (from Mama.Papa.Buba) Strengthening the hand muscles are important for early learning of scissor skills. So many toddlers struggle with basic scissor cutting because of this.
12. Cut and sort with play dough: In this activity you can cut with scissors and sort by color, or shape, or size. However you want to do it!
Educational lego ideas with play dough
13. Lego game with shapes (from kidsactivities.com) This is a creative way to include legos, which is also a fantastic fine motor activity, and a visual and spatial learning activity.
14. Lego stamping with play dough (from Special learning house). This is a great way to use legos to reinforce letters and numbers.
15. Lego figurines with play dough (from mama.papa.bubba) This is great kinesthetic activity, while using shapes and teaching toddlers about character traits.
Social emotional learning with play dough
Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is so very important, especially for your little ones. SEL is starting to show up everywhere at schools. Teaching children how to cope with feelings and others feelings can be hard to teach, especially to 3, 4, and 5 year olds.
Here are some fun creative ways to use play dough to develop the language skills young children need.
16. Play dough faces (from supporting talking.com) Teaching kids at an early age about feelings and facial expressions is so important. Having them create expressive faces with different feelings is s great way to connect to them on their level, and help the to understand that other people have feelings.
17. All about me (from teaching mama.org). These wonderful face mats will help your toddler learn all about who they are and what they look like. They can even create family face mats and talk about who’s in a family, adding some social studies into the fun play!
18. Name and about me (from little smarty pants) This is a great way to get a primary learner to recognize and learn the letters in their name, and learn about themselves and their traits.
Pre-Writing Activities With Play Dough
Adding details to a drawing is great practice for story telling, story writing and vocabulary. So many conversations can be had about what to add and why. This will also start getting your toddler ready for writing. By learning to add specific information, they are learning to tell a story through their pictures, a very important pre-writing skill.
19. Add details to a picture (from mother’s niche) These picture play dough mats are a fun twist on drawing your own information into the picture, which is a very popular activity with toddlers and early learners. Instead of drawing in the detail, you use the play dough to add some details such as chocolate chips, or the snowman face.
20. Play dough letter writing with beads (from the kindergarten connection) Placing the beads on the letters will help learn correct letter formation. They can also trace the letters with their fingers, which is another great sensory activity.
Seasonal educational play dough activities
21. Four seasons mat (from schooltimesnippets.com) Seasons is a topic that is taught a lot in the primary grades. Using this mat is a great way to show the four seasons with trees and play dough.
22. Winter educational play dough ideas (from play dough activities) There are so many great creative ideas to use play dough. From holidays to the weather, these play dough activities will keep your toddler engaged while learning about the season of winter.
23. Spring educational play dough ideas (from play dough activities) Fun, multisensory activities to use with play dough and learn about the season of spring.
24. Summer educational play dough ideas (from play dough activities) Learn all about summer with play dough activities.
25. Fall educational play dough ideas (from play dough activities) Learn all about summer with play dough these play dough activities.
You can read more about education sensory activities here.
I'm 40 years old and a mom of 2 three year olds and a first grader. I am also a Special education teacher. My passion has always been to help people, which is why I started this blog.
Great ideas!