Creative Guide to Super Fun Playdough Activities – 100+ Ideas!
One of kids’ top favorite toys is playdough and who can blame them?! Playdough is amazingly soft and I love how anything can be created with it. So in this post, I am sharing a huge list of awesome playdough activities to do with the kids. With over 100 creative ideas, you’ll find printable playdough mats, learning ideas, imaginative play prompts, creative challenges and more hands-on fun. Pick a handful to try with your kids all week long!
Super Fun Playdough Activities
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Animal and Bug Themed Challenges and Prompts:
Kids never get enough of making their own insects and animals, whether they resemble real ones or they’re made up. This is a great list of ideas for fun creature creation.
2. Complete the Animals Kids Craft Activity
4. Fossils Identification Game – Shark Teeth
5. Jungle Tray
7. Dirt Inspired Coffee Ground Play Dough and Bugs
8. Woodland Small World Play Idea
10. Seashell Peacock
11. Ocean
12. Seashell Snails and more
15. On the Farm
16. Tiger Playdough
→ Did you know that September 16th is World Play-Doh Day? (formally National Play-doh Day) People all around the world share their playdough activities and creations using the hashtag #worldplaydohday across social media such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
Scented Playdough Recipes:
We love nice-smelling activities! These ideas include scented playdough! How fun is that?!
18. Chamomile
19. Spice Printing
20. 2-ingredients Apple Scented Recipe
22. Calming Lavender
24. Banana Scented Recipe – Perfect for Minions!
25. Koolaid
28. Watermelon
30. Pink Lemonade
31. Apple Scented
Play-Doh Numbers Letters N Fun Art Games Play Set Play-Doh Sparkle Compound Collection
Boredom Busters:
Do you have yucky weather outside? Is it too hot to play outside or is it rainy? No problem! Here are some wonderful play-doh ideas for beating boredom while the kids are inside.
33. Press Game
35. Bubble Bath
36. Marshmallow Play
37. Foam Dough
38. Oatmeal
41. Glow in the Dark Moon and Stars Theme
43. Shimmer Recipe
46. Sensory Bag
Playdough Invitations
Invitation to Play:
Sometimes, it is fun to just hand the playdough to kids and let them go at it, but other times, it is fun to include a provocation to play in a specific way. This list offers some pretty amazing ideas that will spark kids’ imagination.
47. Free Printables for Play Dough City
48. Birthday Fun
50. Alien Planet
51. Ice Cream Dough Sensory Play
52. Pretend Birthday Cake Batter (includes video tutorial)
55. Strawberry Ice Cream Imaginative Play Idea
57. Root Beer Floats
58. Galaxy
Invitation to Create:
Do you have creative kids? They will absolutely love this section! Check out this list because it is very thorough with all kinds of creative playdough design ideas.
59. Create-A-Monster
60. DIY Tools to Explore Textures
62. 10 Free Printable Mats with Prompts
64. Printable Princess Dress Up Mats
68. Huge List of Printable Mats: People, Food, Gardening, Bugs, Minions, Pirates, Monsters
69. Robots
Invitation to Build:
Are your kids little engineers? Do they love to build and make structural designs? Then they will really enjoy these ideas!
72. Geometry: Exploring 2D & 3D Shapes
78. Hexbug Mazes
80. Preschool Engineering 7 Ways
81. Build BB-8 from Star Wars Challenge
82. Roll and Build Preschool Game
Play-Doh 10-Pack of Colors (Amazon Exclusive)Dough Tools – 5 Piece Assortment
Invitation to Learn:
Learning doesn’t have to be tedious and boring. Learning can definitely be fun. Check out these hands-on playdough ideas that are educational for kids of all ages.
83. Playdough Alphabet Games for Fine Motor Skills
85. Fine Motor Alphabet Activity
86. Name Puzzles
87. Auto the Otter Sight Words
88. Alphabet Mats
89. Playdough Smash: Number Recognition Game
91. Unicorn Themed Number Mats
92. Pirate’s Treasure Counting Printables
93. Addition with Play Dough Food
94. Shape Mats
95. Create 3D Shapes
98. Color Mixing
99. Teaching Colors
100. X-Ray Idea
101. Volcano Science Experiment
Joyin Toy 44 Pieces Clay Dough Tools Kit with MoldsCute Christmas Molding play-dough kit – create your 3D toy project
So what do you think? Which ones caught your attention? Show your kids this list and let them pick some to do in the next few weeks! You might even consider setting up a playdough playdate to celebrate National Play-Doh Day!
Thanks for including our play dough soap and watermelon play dough counting activities! This is an amazing list with so many play opportunities – pinning!
Thanks Jennifer! You had too many good ones to choose from 🙂