Virtually every small child has had the joy of manipulating playdough. Apart from being great fun and a wonderful sensory learning experience, it builds up the little muscles in a child’s hand, which are necessary for writing.
Confucius accurately said, “Life is straightforward, but we insist on making it complicated.”
When used with thought and imagination, playdough can open up a whole new world of learning experiences for old and young alike.
Playdough can be used for the teaching of:
• Mathematics – sizing, quantities, length, shape, number, counting song props, e.g., five little peas in a pea pod pressed and calculating the weight.
• Phonics can be used to create letters, create models starting with a said sound, and build words.
• Eye-hand, fine-motor and bilateral co-ordination – a wide selection of different tools should be provided to manipulate the dough. This will encourage hand strength, both hands, and hand dexterity.
• Creativity – manipulation which encourages the making of ideas into concrete realities. The great idea is to model or sculpt images in storytelling, second language vocabulary, and sentence building.
• Encouragement of experimentation and investigation techniques – through playing, the child or adult will learn what will stick together, what will fall and why, what tools give the required results, what is pliable, what offers resistance, and the best way to problem-solve independently.
• Social skills – manipulation of the playdough is most famous as a shared experience. People love to chat about their experiences and compare what they have created. This will build up language usage, communication skills, understanding of other people’s points of view, and developing social skills like sharing and taking turns.
• Calming and relaxing techniques – the texture of playdough and the effects of squeezing and pummeling it are therapeutic. It helps both children and adults relax, focus their attention, and relieve stress, worry and anxiety.
Your child’s entire holistic learning can be covered with a little bit of imagination.
Make some playdough, create family time, destress, encourage independent learning, and have lots of fun.
Homemade Playdough
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