Fun Ways to Teach With Play Dough

Published:
October 13, 2020

Sarah Shelton

Contributor:
Sarah Shelton

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you decide to make a purchase via my links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. See my disclosure for more info.

Play dough. You either love it or hate it, and let me tell you, kids love it! I love how it keeps small children entertained for hours. I don’t love how it can get into carpet, and is hard to get out. Thankfully, as we added more children to our family, we were able to get laminate wood floors. This makes playdough clean up a breeze. Play dough can be a great teaching tool for children that love sensory, and hands-on activities.

Fun Ways to Teach with Play Dough

I actually enjoy using play dough with my preschoolers. It keeps them busy when I am working with my older children one on one. It is also a calming, sensory activity. You can make home made play dough with nice scents that calm. You can even add flowers and glitter to play dough for more sensory fun.

Play dough can also be used as a learning activity in your homeschool. It keeps your children engaged and interested in what you are learning. It is also amazing for helping to develop fine motor skills in young children. I don’t normally use a formal preschool curriculum, so I am always looking for ways for my young children to learn during play.

Play dough is a great option to add to a learning play time. As long as you lay down some ground rules before hand, it doesn’t have to be stressful or too messy. I always make sure that my children know that they can’t walk around the house with play dough. They have to stay in one spot at a table, or on a play mat to play with it. They can not smash it into things, and all the smashing has to be done on the play surface. 

Check out these fun ways to teach with play dough:

STEM Challenges and Activities:

Did you know that you can use play dough for some really cool STEM activities? Your children can build animals, towers and people with play dough. They are learning about math with they build 2D shapes. There are also some fun STEM challenges created just for using play dough.

Create a STEM Challenge with marbles and play dough from Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls

Button and Play Dough STEM Activity ChallengeThe Educators Pin on It

The Importance of Bones Play-Doh Skeleton STEM ActivityMom Brite

Play Dough and Blocks Building ActivityTwin Mom Refreshed

Easy Play Dough CircuitsTeach Beside Me

easy play dough circuits- conductive play dough recipe

Developing Fine Motor Skills:

Playing with play dough can help to build fine motor skills. When your child plays with play dough they squish and squeeze, and roll, pat and smash it together. All of these movements build the muscles in their fingers. When they are making more intricate creations with faces, and eyes and creating things it helps their hand eye coordination as well.

Here are some fun fine motor skill activities and even more ideas on how to use play dough for fine motor skills:

Fine Motor Skills Play Dough Task CardsPre-K Pages

Play Dough I Can Task Cards perfect for following directions and fine motor skills – Pre-K Pages

The Best Hands-On Play Dough Activities to Build Fine Motor SkillsILS Learning Corner

Play Dough Activities with Maximum BenefitOT Mom Learning Activities

Using Play Dough to Develop Fine Motor Skills

Using Play Dough for Fine Motor Skills text with image of a child using play dough

Teaching Letters and Reading:

I would’ve never thought to teach another language with play dough! Check out 7 Easy Ways to Teach Chinese and Korean with Play-Dough from Chalk Academy

Alphabet Picture Play Dough MatsSimple Living Creative Learning

A – Z Ten Frame MatsSimple Living Creative Learning

How to Teach Phonics with Play DoughMy Teaching Cupboard

Teaching Math and Numbers:

Massive List of Counting MatsSimple Living Creative Learning

Teaching Numbers with Play DoughLife Over Cs

Play Dough Math ActivitiesThe OT Toolbox

Here are even more play dough mats broken down by theme or learning type:

50 Free Play Dough Mats for Preschool Fun

Fun Ways to Teach with Play Dough