Playdough Funny Faces

My little boy Tommy (3) seems to be really into playdough at the moment. He seems to want to do something with it every day and I'm in no way adverse to this. However, I do find he just seems to aimlessly cut and shape it and not make anything but a huge mess. This is fine with me most of the time but I thought it would be nice to make some more focussed activities for him to do using playdough. The material is so versatile and the possibilities of it are just endless. I love the way it can be shaped time and time again into almost anything you can imagine and that it can be reused.

I always make my own playdough using a no-cook recipe found here. I've tried and tested the recipe a number of times myself. It's soooo easy, takes a matter of minutes, uses very few ingredients and works perfectly every time. Homemade playdough is much better than the stuff you can buy - I find it's much more malleable for young children to work with. The shop-bought stuff can be tricky to work with and needs a lot of kneading before it can be easily shaped. Homemade playdough can also be coloured, scented or glitter can be added Again, the possibilities are endless! As the above recipe suggests, I would recommend using Wilton Gel colours to colour your playdough. They are really vibrant and a little goes a long way. Once you've made your playdough, seal it in an airtight container or bag and it will last for up to six months.

I will be including lots of activities for using playdough on my blog over the next few weeks, including some Christmassy ones in the run up to Christmas. This one I came up with was the idea of making playdough funny faces. You can use materials like the ones in the picture below. Alternatively, you could use straws or pasta pieces, sequins or whatever you have to hand. It really helps if you use materials that are easily pushed into the playdough. For us, the pipe cleaners didn't work particularly well, as Tommy struggled to push them into the playdough unless he used the wire ends. We used a range of buttons, googly eyes, coloured matchsticks, pom pom balls, pipe cleaners, a rolling pin and cutting tool.

 

Tommy was able to complete this activity independently and he needed very little help from me. He was engaged in the activity for well over an hour and was delighted with the funny faces he created. The possibilities are endless with this activity. You could even make animal faces or stretch to making moustaches/beards. The great thing about this activity is that everything can be reused again.