Building Blocks and Playdough
Playdough isn’t just for cookie cutters and model making, there are so many fun things you can add to playdough to make a whole new activity!
This simple building blocks and playdough activity is a great STEM challenge to see what kids can build, and a really fun, and easy playdough activity!
I set this activity up as a little challenge for my boys, something a little different than our usual playdough activities, and they absolutely loved it!
Supplies
To set up this fun STEM playdough activity you only new a few items:
- playdough (homemade or store bought)
- blocks (wooden blocks, or plastic, or even scraps of wood)
We used an old batch of homemade playdough that had seen better days but it still worked fine. Shop bought play-doh would also be great for this activity.
You can use any kind of small block set, wooden, or plastic. We also add some off cuts of wood to add even more interesting shapes to activity.
Once I’d gathered all the supplies I issued the challenge: What can you make from blocks and playdough?”
This fun playdough idea was easy enough for my toddler to join in, and challenging enough for my five year old to really engage with.
The boys used the playdough to stick bits of wood together, to balance bits of wood on, and to support bits of wood so they could create structures that would never have worked on their own.
They also used the play dough to add little extra details, like rolled snakes, lots of little balls and all kinds of other embellishments for their constructions.
The toddler practiced his fine motor skills and worked on his sharing and the five year old’s imagination ran wild as he built more amazing things and worked through problems of structural integrity along the way.
Individual constructions soon became a whole town!
This easy playdough activity was a great STEM challenge for my kids, and they loved every minute of it!
More Fun Playdough Ideas
If you are looking for more fun playdough ideas try one of these:
- Another fun twist on the usual playdough activity is these fun, free printable people playdough mats.
- This glow stick playdough activity is always a huge hit with kids!
- Stamping on play dough is another unusual activity to try.
- For lots more easy ideas you’ll love this huge list of playdough activities.
That is all kinds of awesome! I love the concentration on Morgan’s face while he’s building and that satisfied smile at the end. We don’t have any bits of wood but I might try gathering some branches and twigs from the yard and see what happens. Thanks for the inspiration.
This is truly an amazing and innovative idea – credit must go to you for fostering your child’s creativity – this is proof of what can be achieved when young children’s creativity is encouraged. What an brilliant result. Thanks so much for sharing.
This is so great! I’m always looking for interesting ways to get boys excited about art materials. I know this is an old post, but I just found it on Pinterest. What happened when the clay dried? Did it all fall apart? I might try this with air dry clay and see how it goes.
Thanks!
We didn’t keep our constructions so I am not sure how they would have lasted if we had, but I expect they would have fallen apart as the dough dried out.
If you try it with air drying clay I’d love to hear how it goes!