My parents arrived for their recent visit to our house with two classic gifts for their grandchildren: play-doh and plastic stencils. Both were good gifts in their own rights, but I thought my mother was a genius when she suggested we use them together. We’ve been having so much fun!
Ideas for Play-doh Stenciling
Besides just smushing the playdoh through all the different shapes, here are a couple of additional things to try:
- Use letter stencils and spell words. Or numbers and do math problems!
- Add a little texture to your shapes by lightly pressing them on to pieces of cloth or baskets.
- Mix colors before you press them in to the stencils to make a marbled effect
- Let your little one use a play knife to cut the shape off of the stencil.
- Use two different colors to make a more realistic picture.
- Play a game by having your children take turns pressing the playdoh through a stencil and letting the other child guess which shape they used.
Making it an Adventure
This activity reinforced for me something that I have vaguely felt for a long time- that play-doh play is at its best when you aren’t too particular. Being okay with mixed colors, getting little bits of this and that stuck in it, and using tools that aren’t specifically made for play-doh all makes for more of an adventure.
And of course, having adventures is as much a classic part of childhood as play-doh. If you like this activity, check out our no-fail playdough recipe or my kids favorite thing to make, homemade noodles from this edible playdough recipe.
What other fun ways have you found to play with playdoh lately?
About Katey
I’ve never thought of using the two together either. Pretty smart idea! Definitely will be trying this soon with my little one
brillant idea will be trying that, have stencils that the older children have grown out of but younger ones not quite old enough to use as stencils, thanks
Where do you get these stencils at? What a great idea.