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Playdough Learning Activities

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Playdough is a classic kid’s toy, and it is so great for learning and developing motor skills. It gives you another way to introduce material, from forming letters and numbers to learning colors and just making fun pieces of art. Pinching, rolling, and other manual skills can be developed by playing with playdough, too!

You can buy playdough or make your own (this was our favorite recipe back in the day).  And if you’re looking for more fun adds in and recipes, check out this post from Stay at Home Educator. Here are some fun — and educational! — ways to use it.

Playdough mats are a classic and you can find them on just about any theme. Here are a few educational playdough mats to download:

You can find playdough mats for holidays, to fit unit studies, or just for fun. The Aloha Hut has a great post about how to use playdough mats to foster creativity in kids, as well as some printables for things like faces, empty places and cakes that kids can decorate with dough.

Of course mats aren’t the only way to play with playdough. Playdough trays are another fun way to play with dough that can have a particular theme. Early Learning Ideas has a great post all about using playdough trays throughout the year with different theme ideas like flowers, apples, spiders, Christmas and more. Pocket of Preschool talks about the benefits of playdough trays in preschool and kindergarten classrooms, including more skill development, social skills and creativity.

Trays are an easy way to add manipulatives to playing with dough, but there are lots of other easy things you can do. Adding some craft sticks makes it easy to make basic shapes, like in this post from Messy Little Monster, or for kids to build other creations. Or try adding pasta to your playdough with these ideas from Playtivities.

Sun Alphabet Playdough Mats

Talk about Emotions with Emoji Playdough

How to Make Snow Playdough

Playdough Activity Mats

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Hibernating Animals Activities

I volunteer at my local library pulling holds for children’s books, and the other day someone was looking for Over and Under the Snow, a lovely picture book about animals that hibernate and those who don’t.

It reminded me that now would be a good time to talk about hibernation in the classroom, and what animals do to survive the winter more generally.

Did you know that technically only warm-blooded animals hibernate? When cold-blooded animals do it, it’s called brumation, and insects experience diapause. Whatever you call it, it’s a slowing down of bodily functions that allows animals to lower their body temperatures and slow their metabolism so much they don’t need to eat.

We Are Teachers has a great page about different animals that hibernate (or brumate, or diapause) and you can enter your email address to get a set of free worksheets perfect for middle grades. Education.com also has a downloadable worksheet about hibernation, and you can find many more (including the migrate or hibernate worksheet above) from Worksheeto.

Little Bins for Little Hands has a great free printable pack about hibernation and hibernating animals. There’s a good list of animals that hibernate in the post, as well as some FAQs about hibernation.

Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds has lots of great ideas for planning a hibernation theme, including making a cave in the classroom, painting on ice, and lots of ideas for dramatic play, writing and other activities (and there are lots of freebies linked there).

Little ones will love these bear hibernation hat printables form Books and Giggles that include facts about hibernation.

STEMHax has collected a bunch of lesson planning resources about animals in winter, based on the book Animals in Winter. You’ll find links to videos about different animals featured in the book that you can use when talking about the book or more broadly in a winter animal unit study.

The Wolfe Pack Den has a free printable unit study and ideas for books to read and other things to do (with a particular emphasis on hedgehogs, if you’re into that).

And to bring in one more book recommendation from when my girl was little, Bear Snores On is another fun one, and you can read that one and bring out all your fun bear activities, like this adorable hibernating bear craft from Krokotak.

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