Summer Play Dough Kit

We love monthly play dough kits! Our frog life cycle play dough kit was such a hit last month, that I knew my kids would be excited to see what is next. They have loved anticipating & looking forward to what they are going to discover in the giant classroom play dough kit every month, so I wanted to really stir things up with this Summer Play Dough Kit!

Last year, I made an Ocean-themed Play Dough Invitation, with sand play dough and a light blue “ocean play dough” along with seashells, sea glass, and glass gems. I knew the kids would be expecting something similar so I really wanted to come up with something new that still evoked happy summer memories.

Instead of looking to my favorite part of summer – the beach – for inspiration, I decided to pull my inspiration from the backyard! Long summer days running through the sprinklers, eating watermelon in the sun, and making homemade lemonade are a few of the classic childhood memories I pulled into making this Summer-themed Play Dough kit.

Making a Summer Play Dough Kit

First, gather your materials:

• Pink Play Dough
• Lemonade Play Dough
• Mini drink parasols
• Mini Fabric Flowers (cut apart leis to get a ton for low cost!)
• Colored Sand
• Mini starfish
• Blue glass stones

I wanted to give as many open-ended summer materials as possible without giving the play dough kit too much of a directed theme. There are summer food scents, items reminiscent of the beach, as well as gardening references. This allows the children to bring their own meanings and ideas to their play, which you can see in the many different ways they played with the materials.

Of course, the play dough and all materials are stored in my giant Ikea sectioned container, which I do all of my classroom-sized play dough kits in. You can also search snap lid containers on Amazon and find what would work best for you size wise.

I was really wonderfully surprised at all of the creative ideas the kids brought to the summer play dough kit, and you can see all of the cool things they are learning and processing come out in their play. Above, my daughter decided to try patterning with the different manipulatives.

Here’s a few of the ways they played:

• some cool impressions – the starfish left better impressions than the flowers;
• planting a garden, and then using the blue stones to “water” the garden
• making a beach that transformed into a deserted island
• making textured play dough by kneading in the sand
• making “fancy lemonade drinks” with the drink parasols and blue glass “ice cubes”
• talking about Rapunzel and her flowers in her hair, and some attempts to add the flowers to their own hair
• smelling the play doughs and describing the scents
• using the blue glass gems to make “seeds” in the watermelon play dough

The kids had a wonderful time playing with this summer-themed play dough kit, and it was really cool to see them explore mathematical concepts and use descriptive language without any prompting.

Looking for even more fun activities for your kids this summer? Check out our Botanical Sun Catcher craft!

Then, be sure you request your invitation to let us help you plan all year long inside the Print and Play Club!

With instant access to hundreds of printables by topic and skill (no more scouring the internet!), every TKC resource, a digital games vault, “Super” Sunday Surprises, and much more – your planning time just got easier.

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Jennifer

Jennifer Tammy is a trained psychologist and single mom who runs a Montessori preschool out of her home in order to stay home full-time with her daughter, Miss G. Every day she shares easy recipes, parenting inspiration, and hands-on learning ideas on her blog, Sugar, Spice, and Glitter.

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