My girls have enjoyed this St. Patrick's Day Play Dough tray for hours and hours this week! It was part of our St. Patrick's Day Weekly Preschool Theme, and was something that the girls returned to over and over again. Play dough is such a fun thing to set up for your kids to do. It is great for strengthening hand and finger muscles, allows for open-ended imaginative play, and won't break the bank. This tray wasn't hard to put together, and we definitely got plenty of use from it.
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For our tray, I used this giant green divided serving dish that I found at the Dollar Tree. Score! Many discount and grocery stories carry inexpensive divided party platters that you can use.
Take a look around your house for things that you can use for your own play dough tray. Anything white, green, orange, or gold will work. Then, spin through your local craft store and pick up any extras that you think might be fun.
I found all my materials at Joann, but I've included Amazon affiliate links for your convenience. The compartments in our tray are filled with:
- orange, green, and white homemade play dough (I used this playdough recipe from Nurture Store, and dyed it with food coloring.)
- gold homemade play dough (the same recipe, but colored with yellow food coloring, gold paint, and glitter)
- green and gold coins
- St. Patrick's Day cookie cutters
- little black cauldrons
- green, gold, and clear flat marbles
- shamrock shaped buttons
- orange, white, and green pony beads
I set the tray out on a cheap St. Patrick's Day vinyl table cloth with some white plastic placemats to give the girls plenty of room to play. Then, I set them free!
I played with the girls and this tray to give them some inspiration of things that they could do. I modeled rolling out pancakes and using the cookie cutters, mashing pony beads and gold coins into the play dough, making our own gold coins, using a (butter) knife, and more!
This play dough tray provided lots of opportunities for open ended exploration, imaginative play, fine motor work, and more. Anything that keeps my kiddos occupied for over an hour is a winner for me!
For more St. Patrick's Day fun, check out the Cutting Tiny Bites Pinterest board below.
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