Otis is five and loves playdough now more than ever. I've written occasionally about how we use playdough, always with different items and in different colours, textures and scents. Adding essential oils to playdough is a must. Here are four ways we are currently enjoying playdough. 

1. Alphabet Stamps. This is an excellent early literacy activity, remembering it's best to start with lower case letters. 

2. Other Stamps. I didn't realise how much fun this would be. We have a lot of stamps at home so there is always lots for the boys to choose from. Above are some hand carved stamps I picked up at a market, they are really detailed. I have also wiped down our Melissa and Doug stamps and these work really well with the playdough too! 


3. Gumnuts and Sticks. I love combining natural materials with playdough. Feathers, shells and pinecones can also lead to creative play with playdough. We don't have these gum nuts in our neighbourhood so I ordered them through The Natural ReSourcer, they make the cutest little caps or hats. 

4. Galaxy Dough!! I've wanted to do this for the longest time. I first read about Galaxy Dough at Fairy Dust Teaching. It's simply black playdough with lots of glitter mixed through. It ends up all dark and sparkly - just like the galaxy. Otis was amazed! It is fun to play with as it's so different to all of our other playdough. 

Spotlight (a craft store in Australia) and cake decorating speciality stores have black food colouring including in a powder form. They often have lots of different shades of food colouring which would make a nice change from the standard colours you see in playdough. We could make a set of playdough all in the same colour but in different shades - lovely! We use playdough and Alphabet Stamps from Happy Hands Happy Heart. I hope you have enjoyed this little peek into our playdough play!