My boys enjoy playing with play dough so we make a lot of homemade play dough and reuse it over and over. I like to experiment with different colors and scents, pair it with different materials and loose parts, and try out different themed invitations to play.
Since Valentine's Day is right around the corner, I thought it would be fun to make a Valentine's Day play dough activity tray with some pink play dough and festive loose parts.
But I also added an extra sensory twist: a mirror! This simple addition made this activity extremely engaging for both of my boys and they happily played with the play dough for almost an hour straight in one sitting.
A version of this post originally appeared on the CBC Parents website.
What You'll Need for this Valentine's Day Play Dough Activity
Here's what we used for this sensory activity:
- Pink play dough - I always make my own play dough using this no-cook play dough recipe from The Imagination Tree. It's the best! This particular batch of play dough is cherry scented as I found a cherry Kool Aid single in my pantry.
- Heart cookie cutters - We have this set of Wilton Cookie Cutters that have a little bit of everything, including these heart shaped ones.
- Pink and red loose parts - We used plastic hearts in various colors, red heart jewels, pink straws cut into pieces (you can even buy heart shaped straws!), pink pony beads, and pink and red buttons. Feel free to use whatever you have on hand or can find at the dollar store.
- Tray with multiple compartments, such as a veggie tray - To present all the materials. The tray pictured here is from the dollar store.
- Small mirrors (optional, but fun) - Our mirrors are 11" x 14" and I found them at the dollar store for $1.25 each. We used these to transform the experience a bit and add an additional sensory component.
Put all of the loose parts and the play dough into a tray and set the mirrors (if using) next to the tray. Then it's ready for play!
Time for a Little Valentine Play Dough Fun!
This activity was the first time that we combined play dough with a mirror and it was a delightful little twist. As you can see, my two year old, K, was really captivated by his reflection in the mirror. Adding a mirror certainly helped elevate the sensory experience!
K also really enjoyed pressing the different heart shapes and straws into the play dough, both of which are great for developing fine motor skills. Below you can see some of the impressions the hearts and straws left in the play dough after stamping and poking it.
As for four year old J, he explored the play dough in a few different ways. First, he added as many straws to the ball of play dough as he could. Then he declared that it was a birthday cake, which, of course, led to him singing "Happy Birthday."
J also experimented a bit with stamping the cookie cutters into the play dough instead of using them to cut out shapes.
Then he added some of the pink pony beads inside his heart stamped cookie cutter imprint.
After doing that for a bit, he decided to rip pieces of play dough off. Then he would press them onto different spots on the mirror, adding some of the different objects and loose parts as he played. All of which offered great fine motor skills practice.
This process intrigued K so he joined in to create some play dough art on the mirror. They both carefully ripped and squished the play dough onto the mirror, while also adding some loose parts along the way. It almost looks like a tray of cookies.
Together, the boys spent the better part of an hour playing with this Valentine's Day play dough activity tray. So, clearly it was something they both enjoyed! Here's their final masterpiece:
Since we like to reuse both the play dough and loose parts as much as we can around here, both the boys and I worked together to remove all of the loose parts from the play dough. Then it's ready to be played with again (if they want) or to be used in another activity.
Will you be giving this Valentine's Day play dough activity tray a try? I definitely recommend trying it out with a small mirror. Or you could try play dough on a vertical surface such as a window. It makes for a fun sensory twist!
