This Christmas Play Dough Kit is a quick way to get your students excited for the holiday season! It is a fun and festive way to offer a variety of sensory play options to the kids. Kids love any activities involving play dough and with deliciously scented Christmas play doughs, who wouldn’t love this hands-on, holiday activity?
*Pair with our Gingerbread Centers & Activities for Pre-K/Kindergarten
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.
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!
*You also could use classic pre-made play dough. This is always an option when you’re in a pinch and still looking to provide your students with a great, hands-on Christmas activity!
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.
Supplies in the Kit
- Homemade play dough (find recipe here)
- Food extracts, food coloring, and spices to change up the color and scents of your homemade play dough (see note below)
- Pre-made play dough in a variety of colors
- Plastic candy canes
- Small plastic ball ornaments
- Snowflake ornaments
- Cloves (cinnamon sticks and star anise would also be great additions)
Note: I added a teaspoon of ground cloves to my orange play dough 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.
RELATED RESOURCE: December Print – That’s It! Kindergarten Math & Literacy Printables
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 and I think it’s just wonderfully whimsical! Plus that hidden snowflake in the middle could be 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.
Another idea is to add plastic letters to the snowflakes or ornaments for some added literacy benefits to your play dough kit.
The variations and options for this kit are endless! Time to create your kit and get playing!
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Where can I find these compartment containers?
Hi Sherry!
Great question…we’ve found some at our local dollar store but if you’d rather shop from home, here are some that are similar on Amazon–>>https://amzn.to/2OSdwnv OR https://amzn.to/2N5ztOg
Happy teaching!
Some broken links above. (Play dough recipes)
Thought my students would love this as part of the multi-sensory component of our literacy lessons.
Hi Kath,
Thanks for letting us know about the broken link. We have removed it. We hope that your kiddos enjoy the Christmas Play Dough Kit Activity. Enjoy!