Here are some of our favorite playdough play ideas to get your kids’ creativity going. From pretend play to practicing letters, these activities are perfect for everyday creative play.
Updated January 2025
We’re always trying out new playdough play ideas. In fact, playdough is one of our go-to materials and activities for everyday creative play.
We keep a kitchen drawer stocked with playdough, playdough tools, and playdough “decorations” (toothpicks, beads, googly eyes, feathers). It’s easily accessible and frequently brought out, either by the kids or by me (when I see that they might need a diversion or easy activity).
For every day, endlessly enjoyable and changeable creative fun, playdough is hard to beat.
Plus, homemade playdough is super simple and fun to make. We’ve got three great homemade playdough recipes. And if you’re not up for making your own, we really like the Play Doh brand.
Once you have your playdough ready, here are some of the things our kids love to do over and over again with it!
Playdough Play Ideas
1. Pretend Food
Cupcakes, spaghetti, even apple pies! Kids love to use playdough to make food! They can play kitchen or restaurant and whip up lots of yummy creations to serve to friends, family, or stuffed animals. All you need are a few silicone cupcake liners, buttons, beads or sequins for sprinkles, and maybe even some candles!
2. Create Letters and Words
Playdough is perfect for practicing early reading and writing skills. Children can roll out snakes to turn into letters (also great for developing fine motor skills!) or use letter stamps to press into the dough. Looking for more ways to incorporate learning into your kids’ playdough play? Check out our ultimate list of playdough ideas for kids.
3. Sculpt People, Animals, and Things
Playdough is a great consistency for sculpting, especially for little hands. Kids can create tiny worlds with mountains, volcanoes, and trees for their little toy animals. Or they can sculpt the animals (or maybe even monsters!) that live in the tiny worlds!
There’s nothing more satisfying for kids to poke anything and everything into a blob of playdough! We love different shaped pasta, cut up straws, buttons, nuts and bolts, toothpicks, and even googly eyes!
Here’s a video showing some of my favorite Playdough Play Ideas in action!
How about you? What are your kids favorite playdough play ideas?
More Playdough Play Ideas and Recipes
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