MINI PARTY OF THE WEEK | playdoh

Our house always has playdoh within reach! 🖐🏼 It is a great table activity while mom is cooking, cleaning, working, folding laundry, or just for when we need something calm to do! Although playdoh can be an easy quiet time activity, it is also a great opportunity to play with your child and enhance their speech and language development! 🎉 Our playdoh set up includes: playdough (obviously), a plastic cutting mat, and a tupperware of cookie cutters/rolling pin/plastic knife. We like to smash our playdough on the mat and then cut out as many different shapes as we can. Then you can use the shapes to create a picture, tell a story, or anything else your little ones imagination dreams up! It’s always fun to roll and smash and cut. Sometimes we make animals out of our playdoh, or use our animal toys to make impressions or footprints. The options are endless!

WHAT ARE YOU TARGETING?

-Vocabulary

-shapes of the cookie cutters

-anything you make! (animals, house, knife, sun, etc.)

-texture words (sticky, squishy, soft, hard)

-verbs: smash, roll, cut, press, make, squeeze, open, close)

-colors

-counting

-Sequencing

-first open

-then smash

-next cut

-last, see what you made!

-Sharing

-share cookie cutters

-initiate trades with your child or facilitate trades between children

-Story telling

-create characters

-make a scene

-“Once upon a time…”

-use dialogue (make your characters talk!)

STRATEGIES TO USE

-Modeling: have a mat and playdoh for yourself as well to model how to play and use self talk as you play with your own playdoh

-Play! 🎉 Children learn through play so use this opportunity to engage your child in playful interactions.

-Making choices: give options, increase number of items to choose between as the child improves, this helps them to use their problem-solving and decision-making skills, which they will continue to develop and use throughout their lives

-Making requests: create situations that require the child to ask for help, such as putting things out of reach

-Ask questions: this facilitates conversation

-”What are you making?”

-”Can you give me the heart cookie cutter?”

-”Do you want to make snakes with me?”

Have fun on your next playdoh speech and language adventure! Don’t be afraid to get a little messy! Do you let your kids mix them all together or play with one color at a time?! It makes me cringe a little when the colors mix! 🙃

🧡Mrs. Marci