How can a play dough recipe turn into a spring fine motor activity? Easy! All you have to do is add in a few creative extras and your child can start building her eye-hand coordination, dexterity and hand/finger muscle control skills. We have added several different ways to play with flower garden play dough.
How Does Your Garden Grow?
Play dough makes the perfect base for fine motor play! Not only can your child roll, pound, pinch, tear and mold it giving her hands a total workout, but she can also use it in plenty of other imaginative ways.
For this activity, we’re going to make a batch of spring green play dough and turn it into a grassy surface. After you cook up the play dough, your child can ‘grow’ her very own garden. Obviously, she’s not going to use real seeds or grow real flowers. For this spring fine motor activity, she’ll get the chance to use a few different methods to make the garden grow.
DIY Green Play Dough Recipe
Before growing a garden, you need to make the play dough. Keep in mind, this requires cooking. Your child should never go near a hot stove or help with the actual cooking process. But, she certainly can help with the measuring and mixing. This is a bonus opportunity to build math skills as she measures the ingredients and explore science watching how the ingredients combine and change into the dough.
Here’s what you’ll need to make the play dough:
- 2 ½ cups water
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 4 tablespoons veggie oil
- 1 cup of salt
- Green food coloring
How-to steps:
- Mix all of the ingredients except the food coloring in a large mixing bowl.
- Pour the mix into a pot, put it on the stove over a low heat. Stir the mixture until it forms a doughy consistency. If the mix starts boiling, turn the heat down right away. If the mix seems too watery, continue stirring and heating.
- Drip a few drops of food coloring in and stir thoroughly. Some people like to add the color earlier on, but it will stir through the warm dough just as well. Add less color to make a light green dough, and more to make a vivid hue.
Let the dough cool completely before your child touches it. Keep in mind, it may still be hot on the inside – even if it’s cool on the outside.
Optional: Add a sprinkle of green glitter for an extra sparkle.
Ways to Play with Flower Garden Play Dough
Now that you have the grassy surface for the garden to grow in, it’s time to make some flowers. There are several different ways your child can work her fine motor skills and get growing!
Pipe cleaner impressions
Bend pipe cleaners into shapes and press them into the dough to make flower impressions.
Remove the pipe cleaners to leave behind a flower shape.
Your child will also have the chance to explore shapes and use her critical-thinking skills putting together parts of the flower or shapes to make a whole.
Pipe cleaner flowers
Your child can also bend pipe cleaners into the flower shapes. Instead of pressing them into the dough, she can push the bottom of the ‘stem’ into the dough and make a growing garden.
Yarn impressions
This is similar to the pipe cleaner impressions, but easier for younger children who may find the pipe cleaners too sharp or pokey.
Tissue flower garden
Tear (another fine motor workout) tissue paper, crumble it and ‘plant’ it in the grass. It will look like little growing flowers.
More ways to play with flower garden play dough
Along with these ideas you can also:
- give your child real flowers to press into the play dough,
- make flowers with modeling clay and ‘plant’ them, or
- let your child come up with her own creative idea!
Extend Playtime with a Book!
Celebrate the bright colors of spring with this hands-on color-play novelty board book! Turn the wheels to create and change the bold colors of spring in this deceptively simple and thoughtfully layered novelty book that teaches the joy and wonder of color. Find the book Color Wonder Hooray for Spring! here: United States | Canada | United Kingdom
Who has stripes? Is it the bee? Or is it the ladybug? Turn the wooden pieces to answer the questions in each scene. This book builds communication skills and supports fine motor coordination while introducing garden friends. Find turn & learn book In the garden by Redd Byrd here: United States | Canada | United Kingdom
Other Spring Activities for Kids to Try!
If you’re looking for more spring fine motor activities, check out these top toddler and preschooler favorites:
- Carrot Fine Motor Play – super easy activity to set up and helps child with both small movements and hand-eye coordination.
- Spring Busy Bag: Flower Life Cycle – learn about parts of flower, flower life cycle, spring weather changes and more.
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