Christmas Play Dough Kit

For the final Classroom-sized Play Dough Kit in our year-long series, I had to go with a festive Christmas Play Dough Kit with 5 deliciously scented Christmas Play Doughs!

Christmas Play Dough Kit

When brainstorming for this fun Christmas play dough kit, I had a really hard time deciding what type of play dough to make.

As our final classroom play dough kit, I wanted it to be really special and offer a variety of sensory play options to the kids.

However, offering just one or two types of play dough (or making one scent and dying it a few different colors) is more than okay – I think it’s important to make these kits feasible for the amount of time that you have so that you feel good about continuing to make and provide them. Don’t make them a burden to prepare!

Next, I selected a variety of manipulatives – while those glass-look candy canes and glittery snowflakes are super pretty, I loved offering real cloves and introducing the kids to the idea of cloves in oranges, a classic Christmas activity that is excellent for fine motor strength building.

I’ll list what I included below, but feel free to vary your manipulatives based on what you already have on hand – just make sure they are open-ended and engaging.

Note: I added a teaspoon of ground cloves to my orange play dough recipe and it smelled just like Christmas!

I have a small kit of play dough supplies that I keep in our arts and crafts cupboard so that I can whip up a batch of play dough super quickly without hunting all around for the supplies.

Since our play dough is played with by a large group of kids, I replace it often to prevent the spread of germs.

Our play dough recipes tend to last over a month at home, so if you’re making this for a smaller group you could definitely keep it around longer.

Just a note: I tested this play dough kit with my daughter who wanted to help add in more red food coloring to the play dough – hence the patchy red dye job on her hands in these pictures. I definitely advise using gloves when kneading in extra food dye!

I loved this little candy cane forest – it’s something straight out of a children’s fairy tale or Christmas classic (wasn’t there a reference to one in Elf?) and I think it’s just wonderfully whimsical – and I think that hidden snowflake in the middle is the makings of a great story starter.

While there were so many ways to play with the manipulatives, I was excited to see that the candy canes inspired a new twist on the play dough snakes my kids always make – peppermint twists!

This was a great fine motor challenge and they turned out so pretty – serving as a great self-correcting activity for the other kids that spotted the original play dough candy cane and wanted to make their own.

Many of the manipulatives also made great stamps – the glittery impression left by our snowflakes was definitely a favorite.

You can also add letters to the snowflakes or ornaments (as we did in our Christmas Word Building Sensory Bin) for some added literacy benefits to your play dough kit.

Do you celebrate Christmas in your classroom? How does your group celebrate the end of the year?

More Christmas Fun

Looking for more fun Christmas ideas to try this year? Check out some of our favorites!

Christmas Lights Counting On Activity

Kid-Made Christmas Gifts (That You Can Make at School!)