Recipe for Play Dough and Its Developmental Benefits for the Children

One of our weekly tasks as preschool teachers is to make play dough. Instead of buying it from the store, we make our own play dough from scratch. It is simple to make and inexpensive, too. The children also love to participate in making play dough. They enjoy the hands-on experience of making it even before it's time to play with it.

The following is our No-Cook Play Dough Recipe:

2 cups flour
2 cups hot water
4 tsp cream of tartar
1 cup salt
2 tbsps cooking oil
food colouring

• Mix the cream of tartar, salt, oil, and food colouring in the hot water first.
• Pour the flour in gradually and stir the mixture.
• You can use an electric mixer as it is easier and more time-efficient, but you can also manually stir and knead the dough, if you feel like working with your hands, too. Both produce the same result.
• Check for consistency or texture. If it is still sticky, you can add more flour.
• You can also add flower petals, rice, small leaves, or essential oils to add additional sensory features to the play dough.

Homemade play dough can be really sticky though, so it can be messy and difficult to use after playtime. It actually drives us crazy, no matter how hard we try, we always seem to get play dough on the bottom of our shoes, but we believe its benefits for the children are far greater than its disadvantages.

Yes! Play dough is messy but fun. But beyond being fun, it has many important benefits for children's development.

1. It boosts their fine motor skills development and provides a sensory experience for the children as they explore the texture and responsive qualities of the play dough. Children use their fine motor skills to squeeze, poke, squash, and pat it down. Working with their hands develops their large and small muscles, as well as their hand-eye coordination. This fine motor skills development is beneficial to their self-care tasks and daily activities, such as buttoning up their clothes, holding a pencil for writing, using utensils for eating, etc.

2. It provides therapeutic and calming experience for the children. They work their stress out through their hands. It can be a self-regulating activity for them. When they are feeling anxious, overwhelmed, sad, or upset, they can divert their attention and focus to play dough, thus helping them to release stress.

3. It unleashes their imagination and creativity. By providing them with various materials to use with the play dough, we are able to inspire their creativity, encourage the use of their imaginations and tap into their natural curiosity. Children always produce lots of different play dough creations using these materials as well as their own contributions to their play. We are always amazed by their endless and limitless ideas.

4. It develops their social and emotional skills. When children play with each other, they learn to play collaboratively, share, take turns, solve problems and plan with others.

5. It supports and fosters their independence. When children play on their own and take responsibility when they make a mess (without adults' prompting), they are learning independence and believing in their own actions. And because there is no "right way" for playing with play dough, it also helps build their confidence and self-esteem.

6. It promotes learning. Children learn "cause-and-effect" lesson from playing with play dough. When the dough responds to the actions applied to it, children are learning that their actions have consequences.

It can also improve their math and communication skills. Using different cutters and moulds, children learn shapes and symbols as they press these objects into the play dough. It is also an opportunity for them to learn the alphabet, how to spell their own name, memorise numbers, as well as counting, sorting and organising objects.

When they are also engaged in making the homemade play dough, they are also learning to follow a recipe and instructions. The experience itself can lead to questioning and prediction skills. They get to explore and observe the process of changing state of materials, from powdery to sticky then smooth and squishy play dough. For the eyes and hands of the children, this is quite a transformation.

If you are a parent, do not hesitate to engage in messy play with your children. I can assure you that the fun and benefits you get from this experience far outweigh all the mess and clean up!