Setting up a seasonal or holiday play dough tray is a great way to keep your kids happy and busy! I like to set one up several weeks ahead of a holiday - we always end up pulling it out to play with over and over again! If you do a fair amount of crafting then you probably have plenty of materials to add to your tray. If you don't, then a quick trip to a dollar store should get you what you need. Here's a peek at our Valentine's Day Play Dough Tray.
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Set Up Your Tray
The dollar store has great plastic trays in a variety of shapes and colors. If you don't have a plastic tray, you could use a muffin tin or other platter to set out your materials. Presentation can help to make this kind of project fun, but your kids care more about the materials that they get to play with!
I whipped up some homemade play dough using our favorite recipe from Tinker Lab. This recipe makes play dough that is soft, pliable, and lasts forever. We made 2 batches, divided each batch into 2 parts, and ended up with white, pink, purple, and an attempted red that was mostly just pink. What you see in the photos is 3 of the 4 colors.
I raided our craft closet to find materials to add to our tray. It includes heart beads, mini erasers, cupcake wrappers, pink plastic lips, flat marbles, feathers, small plastic heart containers, pony beads, paper straws, and lollypop sticks. I also set out some of our standard play dough supplies- a small muffin tin and an ice cube tray, rolling pins, cookie cutters, and child's knives.
Let Your Child Play!
Squish, smash, press, roll, cut, glob, squeeze, slice.
Whenever my girls play with play dough, they always end up making pretend cupcakes or cookies. This time I was ready! It was no surprise that they both went straight for the cupcake liners as they set up a Valentine bakery with all their goodies.
Lena's specialty was vanilla cupcakes with heart-shaped frosting caps.
There's no doubt about it-- play dough is a winner. It allows for fine motor work, creativity, sensory input, and plenty of time for mom to make dinner!
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Valentine's Day Slime from Little Bins For Little Hands
