Get ready for some squishy, squelchy fun with these playdough activities! From sensory play to STEM challenges, easy recipes and simple DIYs, these ideas will keep little hands busy, build preschool fine motor skills, and bring endless creativity to playtime.
Creative and fun playdough activities
Playdough isn’t just a classic childhood favorite—it’s a powerhouse of creativity, learning, and sensory fun!
From pretend baking to shape-building challenges, the possibilities are endless. With just a simple playdough recipe, you can create engaging activities for kids of all ages.
Let’s dive into 30 exciting ways to use and make playdough for hands-on learning and play!
What kids learn from playdough activities
Every time kids play with playdough, they’re gaining essential skills!
Here’s what they’re learning:
- Fine motor development – Strengthening fingers for writing.
- Creativity & imagination – Open-ended play sparks original ideas.
- Sensory exploration – Engaging multiple senses through touch, smell, and sight.
- Early math skills – Measuring, dividing, and counting playdough pieces.
The best playdough activities for kids
Spring Playdough
Play dough + loose parts make for the cutest, easiest, most beautiful flowers of your life! Don’t overthink the supplies – kids can come up with creative ways to use anything.
Monster Playdough
Googly eyes are one of my love languages (😂) and adding googly eyes + pipe cleaners makes for the BEST play dough monsters in the land. Remove them when done, give a quick rinse in the sink if necessary, and they’re good as new.
2-Ingredient Playdough
Did you know that you can make dough with cornstarch + a can of pumpkin puree? And while it might be especially fun during the Fall, you can make this any time of year.
Chocolate Playdough
Cannot begin to describe how much we love this. Save empty chocolate boxes, use brown play dough (you can even add cocoa powder to make it smell amazing), and you have a DIY Chocolate Shop.
Playdough Stamping
Do you have a collection of stamps that collect dust and never get used? Well, it’s now their time to shine! Stamps are amazing in play dough and makes for one of the easiest playdough activities.
Ice Cream Playdough
Oh, how badly I wish you could smell this through the screen! This playdough is made with only two ingredients, both of which are edible, and comes pre-colored for you.
Outer Space Playdough
Black play dough makes for amazing galaxy dough and pairs perfectly with a preschool outer space theme. The props added can be totally open-ended and your little astronauts can have out-of-this-world fun.
Insect Garden Playdough Activity
Insect toys are a preschool staple, and adding them to playdough is a 10/10. For extra fun, add real or faux foliage to really make it feel like a garden.
Spaghetti Bead Towers
A classic preschool fine-motor activity with play dough, beads, and…pasta?! It’s true! This has been on repeat around these here parts for years and years.
Christmas Frosting Playdough
Ever since learning how to make this 2-ingredient, edible dough, not a Christmas has gone by where we haven’t made this. It’s silky smooth, sooo easy to make, and smells like heaven.
Mystery Playdough Activity
Kids will shriek with joy when they smoosh their play dough to reveal the hidden, secret, mystery colors inside
2D Playdough Shapes
Pairing playdough with popsicle sticks is an easy and oh-so-exciting way to practice tons of math skills. What shapes can you make?
The EASIEST Playdough Recipe
Our no-cook playdough recipe has been famous for years and it’s a go-to for sooo many people. Plus, there’s a common ingredient that most people use that we don’t!
Rose Petal Playdough Activity
Have a bouquet of flowers past their prime and starting to wilt? Add a handful of the petals into a batch of play dough for play dough that looks, smells, and feels amazing.
Playdough Snakes
Another preschool classic! Learning how to roll coils of play dough in between your hands is an essential preschool skill that leads to making the cutest snakes.
Unicorn Playdough
This would be the best addition to a unicorn theme birthday party, magic theme, or for any unicorn-loving kids. Best of all, you only need two ingredients AND it’s edible.
Sand Playdough Activity
I have been making sand play dough for so long that I cannot even remember when I started! This is incredibly easy to make and it looks + feels amazing.
Pizza Playdough
Kids. Will. Love. This. Play dough in a couple of colors + loose parts makes for the perfect ingredients for a DIY pizzeria.
Gingerbread Man Playdough
Use your gingerbread cookie cutters for more than cookies! Brown play dough + a gingerbread cookie cutter + loose parts = Christmas magic.
Halloween Playdough Activity
The eyeball candies in this dough take this over the top. This frosting dough comes together with only two ingredients and will quickly become something your kids will ask for every Halloween.
Make Pictures in Playdough
This is kind of like the worlds of printmaking + play dough colliding and that’s simply music to my ears. Grab some legos (big or small) to build pictures in dough.
Draw on Playdough
I had wanted to try this for years and we were all beside ourselves with how amazing this one was! Uncolored play dough and Crayola markers are the new peanut butter and jelly.
Peanut Butter Playdough
Speaking of play dough, how fun does this look?! I can smell it through the screen and I bet you can, too!
Playdough Faces
This is one of my favorite things to do when we have a set of play dough with lots of different colors. Kids love making themselves, their friends, and their family.
No-Cook Pumpkin Spice Playdough
Take your favorite play dough recipe, add in spices, and *poof* – it turns regular play into extra-amazing and sensory-loaded fun.
Easter Frosting Playdough
Keep your eye our for this frosting around Easter season and make the silkiest play dough of your life. (This could also be a fun gift for Easter baskets!).
Natural Dyes for Playdough
Did you know that you can dye your play dough with coffee, berries, turmeric, red cabbage, green tea powder, and…avocados?!
Spider Playdough Activity
All you need are dough, googly eyes, pipe cleaners, and toothpicks for tons of spidery fun.
Playdough Turkeys
Have you ever seen a cuter turkey in your life? Brown play and feathers make for adorable turkeys, and you make these with any size feathers you have on hand – big or small.
Natural Playdough with Flower Confetti
Saved one of my most favorites for last! Flower confetti looks like sprinkles and makes play feel like magic.
Conversation starters to use during playdough activities
Make playdough time extra engaging with these fun prompts:
- “If you could make a new playdough color, what would it be?”
- “What’s the coolest thing you’ve ever built with playdough?”
- “If playdough could come alive, what would it say?”
- “Can you make a playdough monster with three eyes and two noses?”
Play dough activities are loaded with science
Playdough is an exciting way to introduce science concepts to kids, and it’s packed with chemistry, physics, and even a little bit of biology!
You might have heard the term “non-Newtonian substance” used before when people describe oobleck (our other fave), but playdough is also a non-Newtonian substance.
What does that mean? It means it doesn’t behave like a typical solid or liquid. Unlike water, which flows freely, or a rock, which stays rigid, playdough changes its properties based on how much force is applied to it.
The secret lies in its ingredients and molecular structure. The flour and salt create a structural network that gives playdough its shape, while the water and oil act as binding agents to keep it soft and moldable.
Want to test it out? Try these mini science experiments:
- Stretch vs. Snap Test: Slowly pull on a piece of playdough—it stretches. Now, yank it apart quickly—it snaps! This shows how different forces affect its behavior.
- Impression Test: Press your finger into the playdough, then remove it. The dough holds its shape because it’s viscoelastic, meaning it behaves like both a viscous liquid and an elastic solid.
- Water Evaporation Test: Leave a small piece of playdough out overnight. The water will slowly evaporate, causing it to dry out and harden—just like how sedimentary rocks form over time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Store it in an airtight container or zip-top bag to prevent drying out.
Absolutely! It helps with fine motor skills, math, science, and creativity.
Add a bit of flour and knead until the texture improves.
Children can roll, squish, and shape play dough to build fine motor skills while creating animals, letters, food, or imaginative sculptures. They can also use tools, mix colors, make imprints, or build small structures for sensory play and storytelling fun.
LEAVE A COMMENT