Play Dough Patterns

Play dough is such a brilliantly versatile resource that it can be used in so many different ways. And by it’s very nature lends itself to kinesthetic learning styles; where children can physically get involved with the learning and therefore are often more likely to retain what they learn.

Set Up

For this easy maths activity I used the play dough, butterfly stamper and dinosaur crayon from our September Worries Activity box and it was ready to go.

When the girls saw the activity I said to them it was a pattern making activity could they use their crayons and stampers to create a pattern. F spent a considerable amount of time ensuring that the play dough was as flat as she could before venturing into making marks. M was quicker to start creating impressions on the play dough and initially wanted to randomly stamp away. I then challenged her to create a pattern using both the dinosaur and the butterfly. Then I created a pattern for her to continue. This back and forth continued for a while with us both trying to create ever more complicated patterns.

We also tried this activity again on another day, after their first day back at school. This time as they had done the activity before they both knew the purpose was to create patterns but both preferred to squish and mark make in the play dough. Whilst their hands were busy it gave us the perfect opportunity to chat about their days. It was the perfect activity to try at the end of a busy or hectic day. So nice and calming and therapeutic!