7 Unique Playdough Recipes for Teaching

Want to know how to make playdough? Here are 7 unique playdough recipes to make learning kinesthetic. Playdough can make for an inexpensive manipulative and be extremely powerful for students at all ages!

Playdough will greatly increase the fine motor skills for younger students, improve creative thinking skills in older students and be the right touch for kinesthetic learners!

So what are some fantastic playdough recipes that may just make your next fractions lesson a hit? Be sure to check these out and I hope you can find one that’ll work for your classroom this semester.

Unique Playdough Recipes

1. Galaxy Playdough – Wow! This show-stopper will definitely be an attention grabber no matter what you use it for. If you want to “hook” your students using playdough, then this kind is it!

If you go off of the sparkle aspect, you could totally work on “sparkling” words and using interesting vocabulary in writing pieces. What if this playdough visited the neatest desk of the day from the “desk fairy” as she left a little fun fairy dust to keep hands busy while learning?

2. Mint Playdough – If you add some peppermint extract and green food coloring this will bring the luck o’ the Irish and make the perfect tool for March. Why not use this green to sculpt the different stages of the life cycle of a butterfly or phases of the moon to hit your science standards?

3. Pumpkin Spiced Playdough – Bring on the fall activities and work work with the scent of pumpkin spice! Orange colored playdough will make for a great learning tool no matter what you use it to accomplish.

4. Vanilla Playdough – What about using a little February-themed playdough? You could definitely create some fantastic symmetrical designs or model division or multiplication using this dough that will have you thinking icing and cupakes if you choose to add almond or vanilla extract.

5. Jello Playdough – The smell will have your students totally hooked as you use playdough made with jello. With tons of colors to choose from, this recipe may help you accomplish any task.

What about using one color to sculpt an inference students have while choosing another to show a prediction? If you have a project that would call for many colors, than with this recipe you have the rainbow at your fingertips.

6. Chocolate Playdough – Doesn’t this one just tempt the senses? If you use this, you might want to schedule it close to lunch time! The natural color of this recipe lends itself to the world of science {or landforms?}.

It would also make a nice canvas to create impressions.

7. Snow Playdough – What inspires like fresh, clean snow? Get your writers in the mood to share what they would do in inches of fresh snow, or to create poetry that uses similes and metaphors.

What a fun variety of scents and colors to bring fun into a day packed with learning! Which one do you think could be your classroom favorite?

Thanks to everyone who first shared these recipes! I invite you to grab the “I’m a Featured Teach Junkie” blog button as your recipes definitely have our teaching minds spinning with ideas {and perhaps made us a little hungry too}.

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