Playdough is a great way to help children develop all sorts of skills. These include creative skills, communication and language skills which they use when they discuss their work and ideas and fine motor skills. Manipulating playdough is also a good way to help children strengthen their hands which helps them get ready for writing.
Here is a sample playdough activity from a Childminding Best Practice Club toolkit that you can try out. There are also resources you can download and print at the bottom of the page.
All about me and you playdough activity
Intent: Help children start to think about what they look like and how that is the same/different to other people.
You will need:
The playdough mats which you can download below. If you want these to last longer you can laminate them or put them in plastic pockets to protect them.
Playdough in different skin, hair and eye colours.
Instructions: (Implementation)
Sit with the children and let them choose one of the mats to work with. Talk about the challenge on the mat. Younger children may not make models that look anything like the challenge suggests but as long as they can talk about what their model represents then that is the most important thing.
Talk to the children about their ideas and work. Make sure that all your comments are positive.
Encourage children to swap to a different mat when they have finished with the one they first chose.
Tip: You can also print the mats out to use as drawing sheets if your children prefer this.
Things to look for: (Impact)
Do children talk about what they look like?
Can they talk about what other people look like?
Do they mention things like hair colour or eye colour?
Do younger children with less vocabulary make playdough representations of simple features like eyes or hair?
Can children talk about what is the same/different between themselves and their friends or the children in the pictures?
Resources and Templates
If you enjoyed this you may also like:
If you find planning for intent, implementation and impact difficult then the Childminding Best Practice Club toolkits can help you. Each monthly toolkit has planning broken down into steps with different ideas and activities for each step or stage of learning. These activities are then described in terms of their intent, implementation and impact so you know exactly what to do and look out for when doing each activity.
Each month features a different topic or theme, all carefully chosen to introduce a broad range of activities and ideas to your children. This playdough activity came from an ‘All About Me,’ themed toolkit.
Find out more about the club here:
The weekly free Childminding Best Practice email newsletters are great for childminders and EYFS providers. Sign up for free and each week you will be sent a useful email containing things like news, advice, resources, information and activities like the one above. To sign up for free visit the sign up page here:
