It’s PUMPKIN time and that means you most definitely need a pumpkin play dough tray in your life! BRING ON THE PUMPKIN FUN! Yep, this month we will be pulling...
Find LOTS of ideas to put together play dough trays for the whole year. Your kids will love the unique materials in these playdough invitations to play. I love gathering materials to create a
My boys LOVE animals and visiting the zoo! Here is a look inside my Zoo Preschool Pack. You can grab this pack in my TPT shop! Zoo Preschool Pack Writing Center- There are picture cards to inspire free writing, themed paper, tracing strips and this open ending writing/drawing page. I was so proud of my 5 year old for writing this by himself! Snake Patterns- Use dot stickers or dot markers to create a pattern on each snake. Dot and Trace- Use dot makers to dot each lowercase letter. Then trace the letters at the bottom of the page. Roll and Count- Roll a dice. Place that many animals onto the background page. Zoo Map- Cut out the alphabet animals. Glue them onto the correct beginning sound. Add in trees, grass, walkways, ponds to complete your zoo map. Write/Trace the Room- Beginning Sounds- Hide the animals around the room. Find each animal and identify the beginning sound. Write the letter on the recording page. OR there is also a recording page where you can trace each letter. Ten Frame Alligators - I just loved how these ten frame gators turned out! Count each number with beads, pom poms, or gems. Animal Puzzles- Complete each puzzle by matching the animal to the correct beginning sound. Kangaroo Hop Measurement- Use snap cubes to measure how high each kangaroo jumped. Colorful Crocodiles- Use small beads to count onto each colored crocodile. Animal Towers- Use unifex cubes to count and build each tower. Sound Cages- Unlock each cage by matching the correct key (or letter) to the animal. Parrot Feathers- Count feathers onto each parrot. Roll and Cover - Roll a dice and cover the correct number. Build a Cage- Pick a cage counting card. Use that many popsicle sticks, with play dough, to build a cage for a toy animal. Name Craft- Preschoolers LOVE their name, so encourage writing and name recognition with this peacock name craft. Syllable Counting- Count the syllables on each peanut and feed it to the elephant. Number Monkeys- Use these monkeys to practice ordering numbers, or for 1:1 correspondence. Again, these all can be found in my TPT shop in my Zoo Preschool Pack! Zoo Preschool Pack A few more fun ideas! Zoo Themed Play Dough Tray- Let your kiddos explore loose parts! My boys love using the popsicle sticks to build cages for the animals. Fine Motor Lion- I stuck a few pipe cleaners into a ball of play dough. My boys worked on their fine motor skills by threading beads onto the pipe cleaners. Zoo Sensory Bin- This is ALWAYS a favorite at my house. The imaginations run wild with a good sensory bin, and my boys will play for HOURS! For more toddler/preschool ideas, follow along with us on Instagram @michele_Dillon For a whole YEAR of themes and ideas, be sure to check out my Preschool Themes Bundle Pack.
Play dough trays are always a huge hit in my preschool classroom, so I have been making them for all my themes, holidays, and seasons. Keep reading for over 50 play dough tray ideas that will engage your students in a hands-on activity. I love play dough trays to help students build fine motor strength, develop creativity, grow verbal skills, encourage sensory play, and more.
Kids LOVE robots! Set up this robot play dough invitation for kids to build their own robots while they strengthen fine motor skills too.
Learn how to assemble a DIY Colorful Monster Play Dough Kit for your child. Easy to make and perfect for Halloween! Find out more!
Play dough trays are always a huge hit in my preschool classroom, so I have been making them for all my themes, holidays, and seasons. Keep reading for over 50 play dough tray ideas that will engage your students in a hands-on activity. I love play dough trays to help students build fine motor strength, develop creativity, grow verbal skills, encourage sensory play, and more.
Create this simple car play dough for any car or truck fan for an amazing fine motor activity for toddlers or preschoolers.
Printable play dough task cards to help your preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students stay on task in the play dough center.
Little builders have so much fun with this Construction Site Play Dough Invitation. Hands-on sensory play & fine motor practice for toddlers & preschoolers.
Laura @inspiremyplay Founder of @inspiremyplay, Early Years teacher for 11 years and mummy to three gorgeous girls. I'm passionate about about the benefits of play in early childhood. This post may contain affiliate links. This means that if you click on a link and go on to make a purchase, I may receive a small commission (at no additional cost to you). Please read my disclosure policy for more details. I often get asked for recommendations about what to buy to use with the PlayTRAY. The world of sensory and small world play can feel overwhelming! Where do I start? What are the must-have items? Do I really need to buy it all? There are definitely some basic items that are useful to have (scoops and bowls for example) but beyond that my advice is always start with your child's interests! What fascinates them? What will excite them and draw them into play? And yes, some of these items you might already have at home, or something that will work as an adequate substitute. So don't feel you need to buy everything, not all at once at least! By popular request I've put together a range of options for resources and supplies to go with the PlayTRAY based on different interests and themes. If you are giving the PlayTRAY as a gift, these ideas are a great way of filling the PlayTRAY to make something truly special to open! Many of these setups are a hybrid of bought resources and natural items. Where possible I've included links to resources to make it easier for you to source things to go with the PlayTRAY but please be aware that Amazon don't always direct you to the exact product I've selected, so do just check prices against other listings if they seem unusually high! As always do be aware of the age-appropriateness of the resources you choose. For example I wouldn't use the glass stones featured in some of these set ups until you are sure that your child won't put them in their mouth. To find out more about our award winning PlayTRAY visit our product page or click the links below. Sensory Play Starter Kit When it comes to sensory play there are definitely some tools that are invaluable! The set of resources pictured here will allow you to set up a range of activities. Bowls and scoops are a must for filling and pouring with dry materials like rainbow rice, oats and sand. These activities are the foundation of sensory play and I can guarantee you will get a huge amount of use out of them! The handy tools set by Learning Resources is another great investment for use with the PlayTRAY. Each tool is designed to work on developing children's fine motor skills and hand strength. We find these great to use with water play and for use with pom-poms and waterbeads. Another tool that is very useful is a set of liquid droppers. You can find them all via our Amazon store button below. Buy Sensory Play Tools & Equipment (Amazon US) Buy Sensory Play Tools & Equipment (Amazon UK) To complement these tools I've chosen a couple of popular sensory play materials- rainbow rice and play dough. You can find out how to colour rice here and how to make our super-simple no cook play dough recipe here. Another great starter option would be to buy a pack of waterbeads! Construction Tray Construction play is so much fun and a brilliant way to gift the PlayTRAY to any vehicle enthusiast! An option for a quick and easy base is to buy some play sand or kinetic sand. If you have a bit more time why not try making our sand play dough or use pantry items such as black beans, dried chickpeas and pasta, which are great for transporting with little vehicles. You can even use cereal, which is a great option for our youngest PlayTRAYers who are still mouthing! When it comes to vehicles there are two sets that I recommend. Le Van Toys make a gorgeous wooden set of vehicles that we love but we tend to save these for less messy set ups. If you are looking for versatility & value for money, CAT make a plastic set of vehicles that can be used for wet sensory play, like oobleck, and easily be cleaned afterwards. Both can be bought via the button link below. Buy Construction Play Resources (Amazon US) Buy Construction Play Resources (Amazon UK) Dinosaur PlayTRAY We used kinetic sand for the base of this dinosaur tray but this one could also be set up with play dough or pantry items. If you're looking for greenery for small world play, a good place to start is a pet shop. Plastic plants for a fish tank or reptile terrariums work really well as vegetation! These wooden slices and green boulders are something we use for a lot of different play scenarios. In fact, all of these items you will find useful to reuse! Buy Dinosaur Play Resources (Amazon US) Buy Dinosaur Play Resources (Amazon UK) Ocean Tray This is one of our favourite themes! Water play is a great place to start with the PlayTRAY and these resources will enable them to build their own watery worlds! Although we collect a lot of shells at the beach ourselves I do recommend the pack of shells from Amazon to give you a great selection of different types. We do love our Schleich animals but I also find this pack of assorted sea creatures invaluable! Because these are comparatively cheap I don't mind using them in all sorts of messy play scenarios like setting them in jelly or popping them in the freezer for some ice play! Buy Ocean Play Resources (Amazon US) Buy Ocean Play Resources (Amazon UK) Frozen themed PlayTRAY This one is such a hit in our house! We've also made this Frozen play dough kit as a gift for a few friends and it always seems to go down well. I painted Elsa and Anna peg dolls for this, but if you prefer you could buy little frozen characters (there are lots of options on Amazon). Check out our Frozen play dough kit blog post for full details on how to put this together. Buy Frozen Play Resources (Amazon US) Buy Frozen Play Resources (Amazon UK) Birthday Cake Sensory Play This is the perfect way to gift the PlayTRAY for a birthday and is one of my kids' all time favourite sensory play set-ups. This uses cloud dough for the base, which is a mixture of flour and oil. It's powdery, yet mouldable so it works well with cookie cutters and to make pretend cakes- you can poke in the candles and they will stand up! I added a little bit of vanilla essence to this to give it a gorgeous cakey smell. Adding candles is a must for this and if you can find some number ones too then it is a great opportunity to work on counting and number recognition. You can find the instructions below to make cloud dough. If you'd like a slightly cleaner option than you could substitute the cloud dough for playdough, but still add the vanilla essence- it's a must! Buy Birthday Play Resources (Amazon US) Buy Birthday Play Resources (Amazon UK) Space Tray These space figures from Safari are the perfect size for small world play! Use them with a base of black beans or make some moon cloud dough. Again, these can be substituted for black or grey play dough. I actually made these planets using air-dry clay but below I've suggested a set of planets that you can buy instead. Buy Space Play Resources (Amazon US) Buy Space Play Resources (Amazon UK) Arty Crafty PlayTRAY Okay, so this isn't small world or sensory play as such but the PlayTRAY compartments are a brilliant size for holding craft items so I had to include it! This is also a really inexpensive way to fill the PlayTRAY. Take a trip to a supermarket or craft store to stock up on crafty items. Alternatively, you can find some of our favourite craft supplies linked below. Buy Art & Craft Resources (Amazon US) Buy Art & Craft Resources (Amazon UK) I hope that's given you plenty of inspiration for resources to use with PlayTRAY and how you can gift it in an exciting and original way! Do pin this article to refer to later and for more PlayTRAY ideas do follow us on Instagram at @inspiremyplay. You can also find a selection of our favourite play recipes and PlayTRAY set ups in our PlayTRAY ebook.
Play dough trays are always a huge hit in my preschool classroom, so I have been making them for all my themes, holidays, and seasons. Keep reading for over 50 play dough tray ideas that will engage your students in a hands-on activity. I love play dough trays to help students build fine motor strength, develop creativity, grow verbal skills, encourage sensory play, and more.
Printable play dough task cards to help your preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students stay on task in the play dough center.
Isn’t it funny how little ones are just curious about everything and totally don’t have that grossed out reaction that we have as adults? I have to admit bugs creep me out, so I was totally not excited for this week’s theme. I tried my best to contain my feelings about insects so Madelynn could […]
For a fun variation on regular play dough try making sand play dough! This play dough is perfect for summer and can be whipped up in just 5 minutes!
Build-A-Robot Tinker jar, silver metallic play dough recipe + metallic loose parts reggio emilia invitation to create preschool toddler party favor
Combining math, language, role play, creativity and a whole lot of fun: Play Dough Pizza Parlour!
Use these shape play dough mats to help preschoolers and kindergarteners learn how to make 2D shapes and recognize shapes in everyday objects
Play dough trays are always a huge hit in my preschool classroom, so I have been making them for all my themes, holidays, and seasons. Keep reading for over 50 play dough tray ideas that will engage your students in a hands-on activity. I love play dough trays to help students build fine motor strength, develop creativity, grow verbal skills, encourage sensory play, and more.
Play dough trays are always a huge hit in my preschool classroom, so I have been making them for all my themes, holidays, and seasons. Keep reading for over 50 play dough tray ideas that will engage your students in a hands-on activity. I love play dough trays to help students build fine motor strength, develop creativity, grow verbal skills, encourage sensory play, and more.
Check out these all about me activities designed for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students. These are great for the beginning of the year and creating a classroom community!
Farm Art activities, Farm Fine Motor Activities, & Farm Sensory Activities for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students
Find LOTS of ideas to put together play dough trays for the whole year. Your kids will love the unique materials in these playdough invitations to play. I love gathering materials to create a
Love play dough recipes that feel soft AND smell good? This cinnamon vanilla play dough is perfect for both fall and Christmas, and it will last for months if properly stored!
Use this play dough writing tray to practice writing letters, sight words, numbers and more. This is a great way for preschoolers to practice fine motor skills.
Let's dig into my favorite (and the students' favorite) spring activities and centers. I also created a few fabulous Plant Anchor Chart Freebies for you, too!
Make a jungle play dough kit - they make a great gift, or a fun and easy invitation to play
Printable play dough task cards to help your preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students stay on task in the play dough center.
Check out over 25 ideas of bird activities for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students. Math, literacy, fine motor, science, & more!
It's back-to-school time which means it's time for school activities and centers to help your preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students get to know the classroom and supplies.
Build a sandcastle play dough kits... A fun creativity-inspiring 'summer is here' gift.
It's back-to-school time which means it's time for school activities and centers to help your preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students get to know the classroom and supplies.
Kids enjoy watching and touching these tiny, fast-moving critters that fly or crawl. Capitalize on their fascination and set up some bug centers in your classroom.
Community Helpers activities and centers for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten. Plus FREE community signs & fire finger painting printable.
Printable play dough task cards to help your preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students stay on task in the play dough center.
A few weeks ago, we made some dirt play dough that has been a lot of fun for sensory play with construction trucks! We also used it for some literacy learning with this dirt play dough and rocks sensory writing tray. Jonathan has been dying to do things that he perceives as “real school work” […]
For a fun variation on regular play dough try making sand play dough! This play dough is perfect for summer and can be whipped up in just 5 minutes!
This Play-dough Slicing is the perfect activity for toddlers to practice and improve hand-eye coordination and so much more!
