Playdough Power

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Program Name: Infant

It has been wonderful to watch and participate with little chubby fingers exploring playdough. We are amazed how playdough is not only a great tool for promoting fine motor coordination, and oral language but also versatile for different learning outcomes.

Our infant friends have shown an interest in all the sensory activities. These experiences with edible playdough and some props trigger children to strengthen several skills in the early stages of development. Who does not love squishy, soft and colourful playdough, right? This simple activity lets children use their imaginations and strengthen the small muscles in their fingers. These muscles are the same ones they will one day use to hold pencils/ markers and write/ draw. Bringing playdough to the table also can provide hours of giggles and learning. Besides, playdough play supports children’s social skills such as sharing, taking turns, and enjoying being in the same group with others. To encourage learning, having a variety of colours, and shapes of playdough, children learn the visual comparison and contrast in objects. In their experimenting, children will come up with their ideas, satisfy their curiosity and problem-solving.

Many of the infant friends started discovering by slowly touching the playdough. We kept the playdough in the fridge before, to add more sensory feeling to their little hands. A child had a big smile at the first moment she touched her dough. She said “Wow”. A moment of discovery during the activity took place, as many children tried to taste the edible playdough. It was tasting funny and salty, so after the first attempt, they moved their hands to play with it instead. The educators asked a few questions; “Look what colour is the playdough?”, “Can we make the dough look like a star, my friends?”. Making comments and compliments about children’s work such as “You cut the dough again.” or “I saw the big heart on your playdough” is another interaction we made. These contribute to their early stage of social skills.

Some children decided to use some of the kitchen toys such as the garlic presser, knife, fork and spoons to use with playdough. Isabelle held a fork in her left hand and then tried to pick up some playdough. She focused to do that task for few times (poking, scooping). This type of action showed us the cause-and-effect exploration when she repeats actions that produce the outcome.

Simply measuring and counting while the educator and children played with a batch of playdough was an opportunity to learn about math concepts. With our little friends, we let children count how many pieces they had and provide the answer by connecting with finger counts. We provided loads of props which have so many different shapes to introduce children to (geometry), and how they relate with other objects in life. Playdough is such a mathematical way of preparing more complex math concepts in the coming years.

A child playing with playdough

A child playing with playdough

A child playing with playdough