Learn with Play at Home: playdoh

Multi Material Playdough Exploration

Apr 9, 2012

Here is another open ended Invitation to Play idea that could have your child occupied and learning for ages. A Multi-Material Playdough Exploration.

Develop those senses, practice skills and give their brain a work out by providing a range of attractively presented materials to work with a play dough base.

Ages: 1+

activities for kids, sensory activity, playdoh activity, toddler fun, preschooler activity

Materials: This was a simple set up of 4 different coloured balls of playdough and 6 different tubs of materials

The containers held the following materials.

1)Patty pans and doileys (she used them before I got a pic), 2)Soft things- pom poms and wool, 3)Pretend play objects- Small plastic animals, trees and fences 4)Long stick like objects, straws, coloured sticks and coloured popsicle sticks, 5)Mix tub- cut up pipe cleaners, little bits of wood ends and plastic teddy bears and 6)Basic playdough tools- rolling pin, cutters and pattern roller

Simply 'discovering' and exploring the different materials within each tub was fun and exciting.

Giving her choice and control over what and how she used each item was what kept her exploring and manipulating for quite some time.

Some tips:

- Repeat this activity time and time again with the same or different materials. You will be surprised by the amount of different ways they use the same materials.

- If you feel your child gets "stuck" repeating the same process again and again, you could play along side them and explore different ways to use the materials yourself. Your child will see what you are doing and how you are doing it and learn

- Use the materials you have at your own house. You don't need to buy things specifically. Be creative with what you find around the house for them to use.

- This activity would be enjoyed by children of all ages

Happy playing,

Debs :)

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Pipecleaners, Craft sticks, Playdoh & Animals. Invitation to play!

Mar 28, 2012

Open ended activities (meaning there is no specific end result required and children can take the activity to whatever level they desire) are my all time favourite types of activities with children.

Whilst we always have a lot of fun learning new skills and creating decorative and useful items when crafting or cooking, providing an activity that I don't know exactly where it's going to lead is when I witness the most authentic learning and where I experience the most delight watching.

Providing 4 materials for my daughter to manipulate and explore on a mat is how I created this invitation for play. The rest was up to the child.

toddler, kids, activities for kids, fine motor skills, playdoh, pipe cleaners

Here is the invitation to play

Bypassing all the animals, it was "plant making" time with the pipe cleaners and playdoh

Using coordination and fine motor skills to wrap one pipe cleaner around the other

The beginnings of a sculpture. Giving their brain a workout and using problem solving to make things stand up, stay upright, keep balanced etc.

This is perfect fine motor skill practice for young children. Simply wrapping pipe-cleaners around craft sticks

She spent a long time wrapping and wrapping and wrapping to create this beautiful "plant," using the playdoh as a stand

"I'm making a sun"

Some tips:

- Notice she didn't use the animals at all. Not once. This is fine. Allowing them to choose which materials they deem necessary to whatever they are creating is important for their own creativity and problem solving. Letting them know they don't have to use everything they see could be valuable for your child

- This activity really doesn't need to be simplified or extended. That is the beauty about open-ended play.

- Listen to your child talk as they go through their experiences. This will help you determine where they are at with their learning, knowledge and understanding and help you to develop the activity (or future activities) to their level and interests.

- This activity can be repeated time and time again with a different end result each time. You can also mix around and change some of the materials that you provide each time to inspire new ideas

- Use this time to demonstrate particular skills to them that they might be attempting unsuccessfully. Just learning to wrap something around an object might need some guidance. Wrapping a pipe cleaner around something solid and stable like a craft stick is easier than wrapping one around another pipe-cleaner. Start with the easier experience first and work up to the harder experiences.

- Make your child aware of the problem solving they are doing with questions and comments. "How did you get that pipe cleaner to stay on the end of the craft stick?" "Using the playdoh as a stand was a good idea to get your plant to stand upright" etc

Debs :)

Playdoh people

Feb 12, 2012

Playdoh is SO much fun! Kids love the tactile element and the way that they can manipulate it so easily. It's also available in a huge range of colours AND you can make it yourself easily and cheaply.

Today our focus with playdoh was to make people. This included talk of various body parts as well as emotions. Fine motor skills were also used to cut and manipulate the bits of playdoh.

I provided a few colours of playdoh and various bits and bobs. Some of the craft materials* I provided you would need to pre purchase from a craft or variety shop if you wanted the same or alternatively you could substitute these items for things you find around the house eg- buttons for eyes instead of googly eyes.

Using old scraps for hair and milk bottle lids for shoes

A pipe cleaner for a mouth. This is a HAPPY person

Apparently this person was waving hello and had brown shoes

Handy tips:

- Use this activity to talk about and identify various body parts. Depending on their level, children will demonstrate awareness of different body parts.

- To simplify, perhaps just focus on faces to begin with and the different parts of the face. If your child is very young and has little experience with playdoh, take it back to the basics of rolling a playdoh ball, breaking off pieces etc.

- Extend this with discussion on emotions. Is you face going to be happy, sad, cross, surprised? etc. How is your playdoh face or person feeling? Why? What makes you feel this way? etc

- In Australia, shops like Kmart or the Reject Shop are probably the cheapest places to buy craft supplies like goggly eyes, pipe cleaners, paddle-pop sticks, pompoms, glitter etc etc.

Debs :)

Activity ideas

In this blog I will be covering many different areas of play including a variety of materials and different ways you can use these same materials to alter or enhance the activity or skills used within it.

Activities range in experience levels and all can be modified to suit young children of varying ages and abilities.

If an activity seems too difficult for your child, take one small element of it and focus on that first. Then, wait a while and repeat the activity. The more exposure to a particular skill, the better and more confident your child will get at it. This could happen quickly or slowly depending on the child.

The great thing with play is there is no wrong or right. Your child is always learning!

Some of the areas i'll be focusing on are: