Next up in our 12 Months of Play Dough Kits series is this garden-themed Spring Flowers Play Dough Kit!
This is a great independent or group sensory play idea, allowing children to exploring mathematic and scientific concepts while having fun.
My kids are always so excited at the first signs of Spring and the beginning of their gardening season. We’ve had a few false starts for Spring this year so I thought I’d whip together a Spring Flowers play dough kit to perk the kids up and give them a chance to play with some flowers – even if our reals ones haven’t poked through the ground yet!
Materials in our Spring Flowers Play Dough Kit
- One batch yellow play dough
- One batch purple play dough
- Double batch rose play dough
- Double batch chocolate play dough
- Floral jewels
- Variety of fake flowers (you can often grab these at the dollar store!)
- Different lengths of green straws
- Purple, pink, and yellow pearl beads
- Flower cookie cutters
As always, I used my Ikea sectioned container for our classroom play dough kit. It’s large enough to hold a couple batches of play dough and several fun manipulatives to help expand our learning and play. The kids find it really easy to clean up after themselves when everything has such an obvious “place” indicated by the different sections.
I made chocolate play dough to substitute for a dirt-themed play dough and it smelled lovely mixed with the rose. Keep in mind potential allergies or scent aversions when you make this Spring play dough kit for your own group.
When the kids first opened this kit there was a collective sigh of “ooh.” Making each of the play dough kits a little bit different and offering several different tools has helped make them a repeat success with my crew.
I try not to interfere or influence their play, but if the children ask me to sit and play with them, I often try to show uses for the play dough and manipulatives that the children haven’t discovered yet. This encourages them to think outside the box and not worry about using the materials “wrong.”
How We Played with Our Spring Flowers Play Dough Kit
- planting flowers in the chocolate mud (and making lots of fun holes all over mud play dough)
- making flower arrangements with the fake flowers
- patterning with the beads
- making designs and shapes with the beads in the play dough
- covering the beads with chocolate play dough to “plant seeds”
- using the cookie cutters to make flower-shaped play dough, and using the beads and straws to embellish the flowers
- using the straws to poke holes in the play dough and then comparing those holes to those made by the flower stems
But my favorite use for this Spring Play Dough Kit was probably when my daughter made a cute little snowman and reminded me that the snow is just going to come and cover up Spring anyways, so we might as well have fun making snowmen!
I love how she took a possibly frustrating experience from her own life, incorporated it into her play, and then found a positive reinterpretation. Open-ended play is wonderful for allowing children to really show you what’s going on in their brains and helps them work out their feelings in a non-intimidating way.
This kit is a also a great addition to an Introduction to Botany for kids – so many possibilities!
More Spring Fun!
Looking for more spring themed fun? Hop over and grab our free jellybean counting cards, or make a fun posterboard egg hunt game!
What are your kids’ favorite things about Spring?
What would you add or substitute in this classroom play dough kit?
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Jennifer
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