The Chaos and the Clutter

Crafts and Activities

Dinosaur Fossils in Playdough

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Playdough offers so many opportunities for great sensory play. Create dinosaur fossils in playdough to accompany a dinosaur unit study or just for fun.

orange playdough with little hands pressing a dinosaur skull into it with text that reads "Dinosaur Fossil Playdough Activity"This simple activity which also gives fine motor skill practise is great for preschools or home. For older kids, it can be a good way to involve sensory into a unit study.

Dinosaur Fossil Playdough Activity:

Supplies needed:

Directions:

  1. Invite your child to roll out the playdough.
  2. Set out the dinosaur fossils.
  3. Encourage your child to press the Dino skulls into the playdough and carefully remove them. This will create a fossil impression.
  4. Another way to use this activity is to have the kids create the impressions and then match the dinosaur skulls up like a puzzle.

Sensory and Learning Opportunities:

Kids get proprioceptive feedback by pressing into the dough and from rolling it out. They also get input from the visual and tactile systems with this activity. If using scented playdough, the olfactory system will also be engaged.

If you are doing a unit study on fossils or dinosaurs, this is an easy and relevant hands-on activity to accompany that.

Are you looking for other easy to create sensory play ideas? Join us for a five day email series on Sensory Activities and Solutions and get a free sample of our Sensory Play Recipes eBook.

Other great hands-on activities for a dinosaur unit study:

Dino Slime

Dinosaur Fossil Sensory Bin

Gross Motor Action Cube (dinosaur theme)

Dinosaur Sensory Bottle

Transportation Alphabet Playdough Mats

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Alphabet playdough mats are a wonderful teaching tool to use with children. Whether you are using them with toddlers or preschoolers to introduce letters or with students in kindergarten or early elementary to help reinforce the letters and their sound, learning through play is the most effective way.

balls of different colours of playdough sitting on a paper that says "Transportation Alphabet Playdough Mats" with a picture of a red tractorWhen we first brought home two of our kids from Ethiopia, not only were they trying to learn a new language, they were trying to learn a new alphabet. I tried all of the usual methods to no avail. My kids weren’t making any progress.

It was then that I decided to try a more sensory rich approach. A big part of that was using playdough mats. We also used salt trays and sensory bins. That made all the difference!

When using playdough mats, kids can shape the dough into the desired letter which provides a sensory experience and reinforces what they are learning. In addition, they are receiving visual cues. They can also use their finger to trace the letter or can draw the shape with a dry erase marker.

How to use alphabet playdough mats:

  1. Print off the Transportation Alphabet Playdough Mats.
  2. Laminate the pages or place them into a plastic sheet protector.
  3. Have the child trace the letter with their finger as they say the name of the letter.
  4. Set out some playdough. You can find our favourite homemade playdough recipe here.
  5. They can then shape the playdough to form each letter of the alphabet and place it on the corresponding playdough mat.
  6. Have the child say the name of the transportation example that begins with that letter so that they can practise the sound each letter makes.

Ways to expand on this activity:

  • Use dry erase markers to trace inside the letter or colour the letter in.
  • Name words that start with that letter.
  • Set out cookie cutters in the shape of the letters. The child can then use that to press into the dough and reinforce learning of each letter.
  • Put out alphabet stamps which can be used to stamp impressions into the playdough.
  • Use slime instead of playdough to shape the letters.
  • Fill the letters with stickers.
  • Use bingo dabbers.
  • Make a collage of things that start with each letter and glue them on the plastic sleeve around the letter.

The benefits of using these playdough mats printable worksheets:

  • reinforcing the ABCs.
  • practise fine motor skills.
  • get visual, tactile, and proprioceptive sensory input (olfactory too if you use scented playdough!).

Get your free printable alphabet playdough mats by entering your email address below. You’ll also be signed up to receive our email series Sensory Activities and Solutions.

Check out some of our other free playdough mats for kids:

Pirate Emotions Playdough Mats

Birthday Party Emotions Playdough Mats

Valentine’s Emotion Game

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This printable Valentine’s Emotion Game can be just for fun or it can help kids develop a deeper understanding of their feelings. This works well for at home, in therapy, or in the classroom.printed paper game with emoji hearts and text that reads "Valentine's Emotion Game"

Printable Valentine’s Emotion Game:

Supplies needed:

Instructions for how to play:

  1. Print pages 2-4. (Get the free pages here.)
  2. Laminate the pages if you want to increase durability.
  3. Cut apart the cards.
  4. Shuffle the cards and stack them together.
  5. Place the cards on the table face down.
  6. Players take turns drawing one card, reading the emoji, and moving their place holder to the correct space. The first player to “finish” wins the game.

Game Play Variation:

Each time a player pulls a card, the player gives an example of a time where they have experienced that emotion. “I feel scared when it’s dark.” or “I felt sad when my friend moved away.”

Allowing kids to get used to talking about their emotions through opportunities such as this game, you normalize it. Kids learn best through play. Particularly when it comes to discussing hard topics, play allows kids to let down their walls and open up.

This game is a nice addition to the classroom as a learning station, an activity for after students have completed their work, or for a Valentine’s party.

Be sure to input your email below to get your free printable Valentine’s game.

Here are some other learning through play opportunities for kids to work on their emotions:

Printable Pirate Emotions Playdough Mats

Feelings Jenga

Spider Emotions Matching Game

Nativity Playdough Invitation to Play

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I love open ended activities that allow kids to explore and use their imaginations. This Nativity Playdough Invitation to Play does just that. It engages not only their senses but also their creativity.

While we have made several Christmas playdough invitations to play in past years such as the Peppermint Christmas Tree Playdough or Scented Gingerbread Playdough Station, this year, I wanted to focus more on the reason for the season even in our sensory play.divided tray with playdough and nativity figures and natural pieces with text that reads "Nativity Playdough invitation to play"

With this in mind, our holiday sensory play this season has focused around the nativity with Nativity Slime, a Nativity Sensory Bottle, simple Nativity Sensory Bag, and O Holy Night Sensory Bin. I wanted to share them to show that there are many possibilities to include the story of Jesus’ birth even in sensory play.

These play opportunities create the chance for kids to engage with more than one sense while reenforcing the true meaning of Christmas.

Nativity Playdough Recipe:

Supplies:

  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/2 cup salt
  • 2 Tbsp. cream of tartar
  • 1 Tbsp. oil
  • brown food gel to make a light brown colour
  • 1 cup water (boiling if making with KitchenAid)
  • gold glitter
  • optional: a few drops of essential oil in pine, orange, clove, or Frankincense*

*a note about scents: Certain scents are calming while others are alerting. If you intended this activity to be a calming one, be sure to choose a calming scent while if you are wanting to create an activity that keeps kids focused, use a more alerting scent.

Directions if you have a KitchenAid:

  1. Put dry ingredients in KitchenAid mixer.
  2. Add oil and the colour and begin mixing with the flat beater.
  3. As it is mixing on the lowest setting, add the boiling water.
  4. Add in the gold glitter. If you want to scent the playdough, add a few drops of essential oils. Mix until the playdough texture you want is achieved.
  5. Store in an airtight container or resealable bag when not in use.

Directions if you don’t have a Kitchenaid:

  1. Mix the dry ingredients together in a pot and stir in the oil, water and food colouring.
  2. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, being sure to scrape the sides and bottom.
  3. Cook until dough forms a ball. Remove from heat.
  4. Place it on a piece of wax paper. Knead. Add glitter in at this point and if desired, drops of essential oils for scent.
  5. Let cool. Store in an airtight container or in a resealable bag.

Nativity Playdough Invitation to Play:

Supplies:

  • tray with separated compartments
  • playdough (recipe above)
  • Playmobil nativity set (or other children’s nativity set)
  • rocks
  • small wooden blocks
  • raffia
  • natural wood slices
  • stars
  • plastic animals

Directions:

  1. Set the playdough in the center of the tray.
  2. Place the other items in the compartments around it.
  3. Invite your child to explore and play.

Sensory and Learning Opportunities:

Stretching, pulling, pressing, kneading, and pushing the playdough engages the proprioceptive sensory system.

Creating the scenes uses the tactile and visual sensory systems. If the playdough is scented, then the olfactory (smell) sensory system is also being used.

This Nativity Playdough pairs well with the Christmas story at home or in a Sunday School class. Students can listen to the story or read it themselves and then create their own manger scenes. Playing with playdough also lays foundation for concepts of engineering by allowing children to build and design something that solves a problem. In this case, the problem is how to create a manger scene or tell a story using the materials in front of them.

Set up a nativity learning center in your home, preschool, school, or Sunday school classroom. Include things such as:

You’ll love these other holiday playdough ideas:

Peppermint Christmas Tree Playdough

Snow PlaydoughSnow Playdough and invitation to play

Gingerbread Playdough

Gross Motor Dinosaur Action Cube

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This gross motor dinosaur action cube is a fun way for kids to work on their gross motor skills and get valuable sensory input. This activity requires very few supplies and can be done anywhere.

outstretched hand holding a square while a child jumps in the background with text that reads "Dinosaur Action Cube"You can use the dinosaur action cube indoors or outdoors. Kids of many ages can participate. This is a fun rainy day or snow day activity because it gets the whole body engaged. Kids explore their movements and imaginations as they hatch, tromp, charge, fly, and munch like the dinosaurs of the past.

I love how these activities can be paired with a dinosaur unit. When we combine full body movements with learning, kids are more likely to remember. Participating in these gross motor activities is also a great brain break for them which makes learning more effective as well. This can be used in the classroom, at home, or in your homeschool.

Dinosaur Action Cube:

Supplies needed:

Directions:

  1. Print.
  2. Cut around the outside.
  3. Fold along the fold lines.
  4. Tape or glue into a cube.
  5. Students can take turns to roll the cube and act out the action indicated.

You can also take the activity one step further by having them read about each of the dinosaur types on the cube or having them draw that species. There are so many possibilities.

Just enter your email in the box below to get your dinosaur action cube and let the learning begin!

The actions engage the student’s sensory systems as well as work on gross motor skills. With these actions, they are able to get visual, auditory, tactile, proprioceptive, and vestibular sensory input. I enjoyed seeing my kids’ interpretations of the dinosaurs. Some kids also like to add their own sound effects. We may not know exactly what dinosaurs sounded like, but my kids did some pretty convincing impressions!

Check out these other dinosaur learning activities:

Dinosaur Fossil Sensory Bin

Dino Slime

Dinosaur Activities

5 in a Row Thankfulness Game for Kids

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This Bingo style Thankfulness Game is a great way to practise gratitude with kids. It can be used during the Thanksgiving season or at any time. When important concepts are reinforced in a fun way, kids are more likely to remember them.

paper cube sits in background. A paper has bright coloured heart shaped buttons on it with text that reads "Thankfulness Game"Practising gratitude sets the stage for a happier life. It’s science. Research demonstrates that gratitude can improve general well-being, increase resilience, strengthen social relationships, improve life satisfaction, and reduce stress and depression.

This game can be played with 2-4 players at a time.

Thankfulness Game:

Supplies needed:

  • printed game cube and game sheets (downloaded from here)
  • scissors
  • glue or tape
  • markers, pencil crayons, or crayons
  • buttons, beads, or bingo dabbers to use as place markers.

Assembly instructions:

  1. Print the cube out on cardstock. Cut on the outside solid lines.
  2. Fold on the dotted lines.
  3. Form into a cube using glue or tape.
  4. Print as many game sheets as needed depending on the number of players participating.

Game Directions:

  1. Colour in the “Free Space” or place a place marker on it.
  2. Roll the die. Look at the category the die landed on.
  3. Name one thing you are thankful for in that category. For example, if you roll “family,” you can say, “I am thankful for my sister.” If you roll “clothes,” you might say, “I am thankful for warm, fuzzy socks!”
  4. After you call out your example, colour in a spot on your board or cover it with a place marker. The first person to complete five pictures in a row wins.

It may be hard for some children (depending on their age and developmental abilities) to think of things in each category to be grateful for. You can help by proving prompts or examples of your own.

To get your copy, simply enter your email in the box below to get your free printable Thankfulness Game to use with your child or students and also receive our free Sensory Solutions and Activities email series.

You may also be interested in:

Two Words That Will Transform Your Family

Why Kids Need Positive Affirmations

Birthday Party Emotions Playdough Mats