One of the best ways to entertain kids is to let them play with playdough. It entertains them for hours and it has so many benefits. We adore that children can learn while playing with playdough and learning how to make animals out of playdough is definitely the most fun!
The great thing about playdough is you can make it super fun for your kids. You can set themes of what they need to make. You can create challenges to see who can make an object the quickest. Depending on how old your child is, you can leave them to it so you can do some household chores.
Why Is Playing With Playdough Good For Kids?
Having your children use playdough to make a variety of different objects can actually have amazing benefits, especially when it comes to their development.
Playing with playdough helps children develop their fine motor skills. Fine motor development refers to strengthening the small muscles like the ones in our fingers. Having your kids knead, grip, squish and mold the playdough helps to strengthen these skills.
Not only does it help to develop their fine motor skills, but it also helps to improve their creativity and imagination.
Playing with playdough is also relaxing and soothing for children. They are able to use the playdough as an outlet for emotions through what they create. Also squeezing and squishing the playdough helps to relieve stress.
We mentioned earlier that children learn when they play with playdough, this means they are developing their vocabulary and mathematical skills.
They learn about how much playdough they need to create their objects. They also learn new words through being able to create new objects and through discussing them with others. Learning how to make animals out of playdoh is a great way to introduce your child to new animals as well as refine their fine motor skills.
What Are The Benefits Of Playdough For You?
Yes, you read that right. Playdough doesn’t just benefit your child, there are some benefits for you as a parent.
This is a relatively inexpensive way of entertaining your children. There are playdough kits you can buy online but you can also make it at home with the ingredients in your pantry.
As we said before, it keeps your kids entertained and occupied. This means you are free to spend some time doing other things while they are playing. Making animals out of playdoh tends to be quite time consuming which will leave your kids entertained for longer.
For those of you who homeschool your children, it can be a great way to make school fun for your kids.
How To Make Playdough At Home?
Making playdough at home is relatively easy. You need a few ingredients and then you’ve got playdough that your children can spend hours playing with. These are the ingredients you’ll need;
1 cup of flour
A half of a cup of salt
1 tablespoon of a food-based oil
1 cup of water
Natural food coloring
2 teaspoons of cream of tartar (some people leave this out)
All you have to do is mix the ingredients together. You can heat this mixture on the stove so it is completely smooth. Let it cool and once it has, it is ready to knead.
How To Make Animals Out Of Playdough?
So if you have your playdough then some of the best things for your kids to make are animals. Here are some animals you can make out of playdough.
Playdough Snake
Let’s start things easy with this playdough snake. All you will need for this playdough animal is two colors of playdough.
Step One – Make a small triangle.
Step Two – Make a slightly larger ball in the other color playdough.
Step Three – In the same color playdough as the ball, make a long tube.
Step Four – Attach the ball to one end of the tube.
Step Five – Make a small split in the triangle so it looks similar to a heart. Then where you split the triangle make the two ends into small tubes. It should look like a tongue.
Step Six – Attach the tongue to the front of the ball and put bends in the tube.
Playdough Snail
This is a great way to incorporate natural materials into your child’s arts and crafts. All you will need is two colors of playdough and some seashells.
Step One – Make a tube but flatten it slightly.
Step Two – Round one end of the tube.
Step Three – Make the other end of the tube into a soft point.
Step Four – With the other color playdough make two tiny antennae.
Step Five – Attach them on top of the round part of the tube. This is the snail’s head.
Step Six – Place the seashell on the middle of the tube leaving a small space behind the antennae. Your snail is complete.
Playdough Turtle
This one is a bit more challenging but is still super fun. All you will need is two colors of playdough, preferably green and blue.
Step One – Make a large ball with the green playdough.
Step Two – Make a medium and small ball with the blue playdough.
Step Three – Make four medium-sized cubes with the blue playdough.
Step Four – Turn the blue small and medium size balls into triangles.
Step Five – Flatten the bottom of the large green ball so it becomes half of a sphere.
Step Six – Pinch the edge of the large green half sphere, so it has a flat crimped border around it.
Step Seven – Round one point of the large blue triangle.
Step Eight – Attach the small triangle to the large green half sphere. This is the tail.
Step Nine – Opposite where you attached the small triangle, attach the larger rounded triangle. This is the turtle’s head.
Step Ten – Attach the four cubes underneath the half sphere, to the flat side. These are the legs and feet. Then your turtle is complete.
What is great about making animals out of playdough is you can leave it up to your kids to decide. You could set a theme such as animals in the jungle, animals in the water, or even household pets. This inspires your children to be creative and learn about animals.
For those of you who are eco-friendly and prefer using natural materials, finding sticks, leaves, shells, or even pinecones is a great alternative to materials your might find in the store.
Final Thoughts
Playing with playdough is such a great activity for children to do. They get to play, be creative, and learn new things when doing so. You could leave them to make whatever their mind thinks of or you could create a theme for them.
When learning how to make animals out of playdough, it is always good to ask probing questions to get them to make something. This could be as simple as asking them what animals like to eat meat. This way they can still be creative with their answer but they are sticking to a theme.
Hopefully, we’ve inspired you to create some animals out of playdough with your kids. We hope we’ve helped you to be able to make animals out of playdough and that you feel confident to let your kids have a try.
At the end of the day, playdough is supposed to be fun so whatever they create we are sure it will be amazing!
My name is Joyce Bailey, and I am a mother of two wonderful children. When I had my first child five years ago, at first I struggled to know which method of parenting I wanted to adopt. Traditional parenting just did not seem right for my family.
