Playdough

In P2 we love playing with dough! It is very relaxing and therapeutic and a great stimulus for creativity. Working with dough helps to develop fine motor skills, increases concentration and also encourages language and social skills.

Week Beginning 22nd June

It's getting hotter outside and we are all ready for some ice cream!

Why not make your own ice cream parlour and serve some special play-dough cornettos, 99s or other flavoured ice creams?! Use the basic dough recipe above, and when cooled, divide into 4 pieces. Add food colouring to create the different flavours. 

• For chocolate ice cream, roll the playdough in cocoa powder and knead it into the dough.
• For vanilla ice cream, simply add vanilla essence and no food colouring.
• Add mint essence to green dough to make mint ice cream.
• Strawberry essence can be added to pink-coloured dough to make strawberry flavour.
• To make the ice cream cones , use some recycled corrugated cardboard. Stick or tape together triangles of card to make a cone shape.
• Mini foil shapes or coloured beads make great toppings. (Be careful of the choking hazard if there are younger children at home.) Small sticks from the garden make perfect chocolate flakes!.
• Set up a table with different sized scoops, paper napkins, a cash till or box and you are all ready for your first customers!

Below are some more role play ideas and downloadable PDFs.

Transport Topic

Week Beginning 8th June

This week we are going to test playdough to see if we can make it float!

What you need

1. Play dough
2. Sink, bucket or clear container
3. Water

What to do

1.  Fill your container with water.
2. Place a ball of playdough gently in the water.
3. What happens to the ball of play dough?
4. Take the ball of playdough out of the water
5. Take another piece of dough and mould it into the shape of a boat.
6. Now place your boat on top of the water very carefully.
7. What happens with your play dough boat? 

There are lots of fun ways to use playdough for this topic. 

• You can use playdough to make a road surface for play cars and trucks.
• Add texture to dough using clean play sand for a building site scene with construction vehicles.
• Make cars and other vehicles. (See PDF)

Look at the photos below to get some ideas.

'In the Garden'

Use playdough to make:

• a minibeast (Start with a worm and then try curling a spiral for a snail shell.)
• a flower
• a flower pot
• seeds
• a garden fence