The Power of Playdough! (plus a playdough recipe!)

Hey Reader!

Playdough is an amazing tool that can be used with almost all ages of young children to teach a variety of skills and benefit in development. I had a fun conversation with Sarah Scrivens recently about all the great ways we can use playdough to meet learning goals in every age group. Listen in HERE.

• Fine Motor Skills – as children squeeze, pull, pat, roll, push, poke, and pinch playdough, they are building all of the muscles and joints in their fingers, hands, wrists, forearms, and even shoulders, upper chest, and back and core abdominal muscles!
• Oral Language – Playdough creates so many opportunities to have meaningful conversations with children of all ages as they experiment and play.
• Social-Emotional Skills – Playdough offers a healthy, safe way to express emotions – make a happy/sad/angry face in the playdough; punch/pound playdough rather than a classmate; squeeze playdough to get out your frustrations;
• Literacy/Pre-Reading/Pre-Writing Skills – Playdough is a great tool that allows children to work with letters in age-appropriate ways – use letter cookie cutters or stamps to practice letter identification, roll playdough “snakes” and form letters, using toothpicks or even sharpened pencils to practice “writing” on flat playdough;
• Pre-Math Skills – Children can practice numeral identification and recognition with cookie cutters or stamps similar to the letter activities above; roll playdough balls and practice one-to-one correspondence and counting;
• Creative Expression – Playdough is a wonderful creative medium for children to explore – color-mixing (I know some of us gasp at this, but…it’s a great way for children to experience this!); building and forming creations and then smooshing them and trying again; add other art supplies like feathers, pipe cleaners, jewels, buttons, etc.
• Sensory Experience – Playdough offers a unique sensory experience for young children – you can mix beads, beans, small rocks, and small plastic manipulatives into a lump of playdough to create various textures for children to explore; add essential oils (beware of allergies) or powdered drink mix packets for various smell and taste experiences.

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You can download and print our favorite homemade playdough recipe with lots of add-in ideas HERE!

Cheering you on this week!

-Your ECCN team

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Colossians 3:16

“Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.”