Our favourite homemade DIY playdough recipe & 36 ways to use it!
I truly believe this to be the best homemade DIY playdough recipe. Everyone loves their homemade playdough recipe, I know that. I realize that when I say this is the ‘best’ diy playdough recipe you won’t believe me. There are loads of ‘best’ playdough recipes online, BUT THIS ONE IS ACTUALLY THE BEST HOMEMADE PLAYDOUGH. Myself, my toddler and everyone I’ve ever given this recipe to think so anyway….
I’ve tried a gazillion other homemade playdough recipes. Lots of them are great, but I love this one more. This playdough is soft, such a nice texture, not sticky and lasts ages. And while you do have to cook it, it only takes a few minutes and it’s worth the effort. Plus zero/minimal kneading is required – I personally can’t stand kneading no cook recipes.
Download the best homemade playdough recipe
Add your email below to download your free copy of the best homemade playdough recipe. I’ve created a PDF for you with the short list of ingredients (just five!), how to, some tips and I’ve included three ways to colour the dough too!
And scroll down a bit to read about the many benefits of playdough & our favourite ways to use it!
Benefits of Playdough:
Playdough is one activity that I enjoy almost as much as my little guys. I’m sure you don’t need to be convinced that playdough is fun AND beneficial for your kids! And if you’re not playing on carpet, it’s relatively mess free.
Here’s a quick list of some positive benefits you can feel good about:
- It’s calming and can be mindful.
- Engages kids’ concentration.
- Sensory experience.
- Encourages creativity.
- Fine motor skills development, hand-eye coordination practice, strengthens hand muscles.
- Learn new vocabulary (squish, roll, flatten, pinch, squeeze…).
Playdough Ideas:
- Add dry pasta
- Add flowers / petals
- Mix dough to make new colours
- Use lace to make prints
- Add beads
- Make roads for vehicles to drive on / tire tracks
- Make figurines (animals, people, vehicles, flowers, anything!)
- Self portraits / faces with dough or add Mr. Potato Head body parts
- Playdough Cupcakes (add cupcake liners, candles and rainbow rice sprinkles)
- Bakery – make playdough pies, cookies, croissants, donuts
- Pasta – roll into spaghetti shapes, make meatballs
- Poke feathers
- Mold into ice cube trays or small containers
- Add pipe cleaners and make sculptures
- Make half a pattern / picture and challenge your kid to finish the other half (idea from @cara_florance on Instagram!)
- Paint by colour – smudge the dough onto thick paper or cardboard to ‘paint’ with it
- Make snakes
- Use blocks, loose parts, lids (anything!) for stamping
- Stamp different items in the dough and ask your kid to match up the marks to the correct item
- Pizza Parlour – make playdough pizzas
- Practice letter + number recognition and formation – make letters & numbers out of playdough
- Smash balls of playdough with a hammer
- Fill plastic eggs
- Add googley eyes to make characters (like in the photo above! Idea from @treasuretrays on Instagram)
- Make impressions with string / yarn
- Make a playdough ‘mine’ for trucks to take ‘diamond gems’ and rocks out of (my son’s favourite)
- Add kitchen tools like a potato masher, rolling pin, ice cream scoop, melon baller
- Ice Cream Parlour – scoop balls of ‘ice cream’, add rainbow rice sprinkles & red pompom cherries
- Wrap or bury little toys or handwritten notes in playdough
- Use cookie cutters
- Snip dough with scissors
- Practice cutting with a kid-friendly knife and fork
- Make roads for construction vehicles to ‘dig up’.
- Add googley eyes and loose parts to make monsters
- Add LEGO / Duplo
- Add natural loose parts; rocks, sticks, shells, pinecones
