This Gingerbread Play Dough Activity Tray will keep your preschooler creating and busy throughout the holiday season! For our December tray, I grabbed a gingerbread cookie cutter, beads, pipe cleaners, and some Christmas notions from a local craft store. The best part about this tray is the Gingerbread Play Dough…it has a natural, festive scent that is so cozy.
STRENGTHEN HAND MUSCLES
This Gingerbread Play Dough Activity Tray will provide your child with the opportunity to strengthen their fine motor skills. All of the smashing, pinching, rolling, and manipulating of the play dough will engage their hand muscles. This is important for mastering tasks like doing buttons, zipping, and holding a pencil properly for writing.
HOW TO MAKE GINGERBREAD PLAY DOUGH
I wrote a post on how to whip up your own non-toxic homemade playdough. The recipe is very easy and only takes five minutes. Here are the ingredients for Gingerbread play dough:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1 cup hot water
1.5 tbsp. oil
2 tbsp. cream of tartar
*the special ingredient, 3 tbsp. pumpkin pie spice (or a combination of cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon + ginger...but pumpkin pie spice works great too, and only requires ONE ingredient)
If you want step by step instructions and pictures on how to mix it all together, go read this post!
MATERIALS FOR GINGERBREAD PLAY DOUGH ACTIVITY TRAY
Like I said earlier, the best part about this tray is the amazing smell of the Gingerbread Play Dough. It is also the main sensory tool for these invitations to play, so use a homemade recipe like I did or buy some…either way! For this specific tray I grabbed a gingerbread cookie cutter from the kitchen, green/white beads and pipe cleaners from the craft closet, and candy cane/gingerbread notions from Hobby Lobby. I also found a cute wooden rolling pin while at Hobby Lobby.
RECOMMENDED PRODUCTS
numbered cards (to practice counting)
twigs
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DIFFERENT KINDS OF PLAY
There are so many different ways to play with the Gingerbread Play Dough Activity Tray:
- comparing sizes of gingerbreads
- making patterns with the beads and shapes
- imaginary play with creating a "gingerbread family" or Christmas cookies
Be creative, and have fun with it! Check out more of our play dough activity trays HERE!
