Play Doh is one of my favorite preschool activity toys and art mediums. Mashing the dough can creating people, ice cream cones, pizza, and animals, is as much fun for me as the kids. I am not sure what came first, the lessons I developed using Play Doh or my desire to play and the need to make it count as part of my lesson plan. Nonetheless, I have come up with a way to play and learn. Now, when my husband comes home and finds Play Doh mashed in the carpet its all good. In all seriousness, using a medium to reinforce lessons is a multi-sensory approach that is very effective in teaching.
Ways to Incorporate Play Doh in your Lessons {When you really just want to play.}
Letters: Mold that Play Doh into the alphabet and teach letters. I use cookie cutters of an object and have my child mold the first letter sound. With my older child, I have her mold the letters to spell the word.
Numbers: The same concept as letters but using numbers. I would roll out several balls or small shapes and have my child mold the proper number.
Shapes: Again, the same as letters and numbers. You can use cookie cutters or make the shapes by hand. Have your child make Play Doh objects like houses out of the shapes created for added reinforcement and critical thinking skills.
Color Mixing: I tried deluding myself that Play Doh could remain unmixed if I only allowed one tub out at a time or implement some other strategy to keep the Play Doh pure. Wisdom taught me to allow the mixing since there was no way to keep the Play Doh apart. Since, it will all get mixed up anyway, I buy primary colors and we mix our own secondary colors when studying colors. The kids were amazed that after years of fighting the war on mixed Play Doh, I finally embraced it.
Creative Play: Let’s never push aside creative play as if it has no value. Creative play is the manifestation of imagination and processed lessons. Charlotte Mason calls a time to play, masterly inactivity. I didn’t realize I could master inactivity and I am grateful for the lesson.
Don’t worry if you don’t have Play Doh on hand. Check out these recipes and make your own!