My two preschoolers LOVE to play with playdough. I love it because it helps to strengthen their fine motor muscles use for pencil grip and writing. We use playdough almost daily in our home in some capacity. Just recently, my kiddos (ages 3.5 and 5) had a ball creating and writing about playdough snowmen!
Playdough Snowmen with Cootie Pieces
I had a thought that woke me one night. My kids love to play the Cootie game. Why not use those pieces to decorate playdough snowmen to integrate some additional fine motor work? (We have an abundance of store-bought playdough. Otherwise, I would have made my own playdough using this recipe.)
So they did! I thought they turned out rather cute and funny!
Using Dice and Pony Beads with the Playdough Snowmen
The next day, we used our 1/2 spaghetti noodles (like we did with our playdough turkeys). They rolled a die/dice (to integrate a little math) and added that many pony beads to create arms on the snowman.
Pinching the pony beads and sliding them onto the noodles is such a great way to strengthen those writing muscles!
Writing about Playdough Snowmen
Since I had already integrated a little math, I thought: why not throw in some writing? 🙂
I encouraged my 5 year old son to draw a picture to match his snowman.
I also challenged him to write about his snowman. We stretched out the sounds in the words (like I talk about in this post) as he wrote: I MAD a SOMAN (I made a snowman).
More Winter Playdough Fun:
- Winter (and Christmas) Open-Ended Playdough Mats
- Footprints in the Snow
- Snow Dough Recipe
- Snowman Play Dough Mats
- Homemade Snow Playdough
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~Becky
Love this idea! So many skills worked on in one fun play session!!!! PInning!
Thank you, Megan! 🙂