Play Dough and Beads

We love play dough at our house, but we sometimes get bored with using it the same way. I like to add different items to our play dough time to keep interest up. Today, we added some beads which made the play dough look so pretty and also provided some great fine motor work for my kids. Next time you are looking for a quick activity, try play dough and beads or check out some playdough play ideas.

Kids will love this play dough activity since it is a new way to have fun with play dough. If you are looking for more ways to extend play, try these Ocean Playdough Mats from Royal Baloo. You can print and laminate these colorful mats to use again and again.

Supplies you will need:

Play dough
Beads
Cookie Cutters

Before we started I used some cookie cutters to cut various shapes out of the play dough.

I gave the kids some shapes and a cup of beads and explained how they could decorate their shapes by pushing in the beads. As you can see, they really worked those little fingers pushing the beads in the dough.

Picking the beads out of the cup provided good fine motor practice as well. For more practice, check out Fine Motor Practice with Straws.. Often, the kids were looking for a specific color bead and had to dig through the cup and then pick up the small bead.

"A" filled her entire duck with beads. That's one colorful duck!

Little C decided that she should fill up her shapes with beads too. She then kept herself busy picking each bead out of her play dough.

Proud mommy moment! "A" saw me photographing her work and got her kid's camera (which actually works) and took a picture too. She's a blogger-in-training!

I have to say play dough and beads kept the girls busy for a good 40 minutes which in mommy-time is an eternity! Please remind your kids not to put the beads in their mouth, nose or ears. None of your kids would ever do such a thing, right?

If you liked this play dough and beads activity, you'll love:

Birthday Party Playdough