Fun With Play Dough!

Creating with play dough can be an inviting experience for small hands to manipulate. 

What you can do with play dough:

• Manipulate the dough with your hands.  Try shaping, pinching, poking, patting, pulling and rolling.  Make figurines, animals, food models and other objects.
• Shape and texture dough with simple tools, such as a rolling pin or dowel, combs, pencils and plastic utensils, or press into the dough with textured surfaces.
• Experiment with mixing colors.  Start by mixing two of the primary colors (red, blue, and yellow) together to make secondary colors (orange, green, and purple).
• Use plastic knives and scissors to cut shapes from a flat slab of dough that has been rolled out with a dowel or rolling pin.  Add texture and/or firmly press other shapes onto slab cutouts to decorate them.  Use a pencil to open hanging holes at the top of ornaments, pendants and medallions that will be allowed to dry.
• Embed 3-D objects such as buttons into the dough pieces that will be allowed to dry.
• Make coils by rolling out snake-like pieces of dough on a flat surface or between your hands.  layer the coils and press them snugly together to build pots annd other compact structures.
• Create beads.  Roll pieces of dough into balls or cut a coil into equal size pieces.  Flatten, texture or roll coil pieces into balls if desired.  Use a pencil or nail to open large holes for stringing, then allow beads to dry thoroughly before stringing on yarn.  make multi-colored coils by rolling two or more dough colors together.  Use as suggested for coils or beads.
• Combine dough beads, forms and coils to make designs, ornaments, and pendants.  Use a pencil to open a hole at the top if ornaments and pendants.  After piece dries, string it on ribbon or yarn.