My (now almost 3yr old) Mr. C was so taken with making imprints and star shapes in the play dough from our red white & blue play dough last week that I thought I would capitalize on his interests for a few more activities. One of which turned out to be this Sea Life Play Dough Imprints invitation to play.
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The blue jello play dough we made last week was just screaming to be played with in some sort of oceanic activity and these little Coral Reef Safari Toob figures that were the most recent to grace our collection were the perfect accompaniment. As a side note: My kids are addicted to these little figures right now. Even Little E (15 months) enjoys playing with, inspecting and handling them). Giving him just the figures in a small basket to explore is a sensory experience in and of itself. A little more on the sensory aspect later though.
For this activity, I laid everything out for C as you see here:
And he did the rest. As I suspected he immediately started squishing figures into the play dough and marveling at the impressions they left behind.
Once he had the play dough filled up with imprints he would ask me to roll it out again so he could do some more. I let him play in this way for a while and when he started to get a little bored I changed the game up a bit. Having him close his eyes, I would make a print in the play dough and then have him guess which sea creature made the print. He loved it! I see lots more play dough imprints in our future.
Play Dough a classic forms of tactile play. Think of all the handling, squishing and molding that’s involved in playing with play dough. We probably all played with it as kids. Personally it’s one of our favorites and it’s pretty easy to come by 🙂 Even making play dough can be an sensory experience in and of itself.
Play dough is awesome on it’s own but there are endless possibilities for additional elements that you can incorporate to help expand play, and along with it your child’s sensory experience.
Check out these posts for more ways to play with play dough!
DIY Cupcake Play Dough Factory
Fine Motor Work with Play Dough
Ooh, it does leave pretty imprints! Good idea!
We have that TOOB set! Love your simple idea of making imprints with them!
Kristina @ School Time Snippets recently posted…Mini Sensory Bin Free Play {Tactile Sensory Play}
What a fun idea! We do play dough a lot but I never thought of including our regular animal toys. I think my boys will really enjoy this.
Becky Marie recently posted…Vestibular Sensory Play