Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Play Doh in the Classroom

Isn't Play-Doh so much fun!?  As a kid, I LOVED playing with it!  I remember one of my favorite toys was the Play-Doh Barber and Beauty Shop!  I seriously spent countless hours playing with that set!  I also love the smell of Play-Doh!  Do you!?!


Play-Doh is fun and all, but it is also has a lot of benefits.  Did you know that doh is fabulous for fine motor practice?  Play-Doh can be squished, squeezed, rolled, cut, poked, and more!  All of these actions assist in fine motor development.  Why is this important?  Because it helps young children become stronger at gripping a pencil and cutting with scissors.

Play-Doh encourages children to use their imaginations!  This is ever-so important in the growing world of technology.  I frequently get offered a "cookie," "pizza," or "taco" by my firsties!  The possibilities are endless!

Doh has a calming effect and can be used to calm a student down when necessary.  Playing with doh can relieve a lot of stress and can be beneficial when talking to or counseling a child.

Doh can be used for literacy and math development.  Use it to practice letters, words, numbers, number words, and more!  The students won't know they are learning because they will be having so much fun!


I use doh on the regular in my first grade classroom.  At the beginning of the year {for the first few weeks or so}, I use doh breaks to help give students' brains a little rest!  All the material they are doing with procedures and assessments can make their brains exhausted!  Also, I don't know if students did anything to strengthen their fine motor skills during the summer months.  These frequent breaks will help build up the muscles that may have been weakened during the summer.  When I do these brain breaks at the start of the year, I do not give students anything besides the play-doh.  I just let them explore and go to town!

As the weeks go on, I begin introducing doh into my centers.  I use it quite frequently for word work, particularly sight word practice.  Last year, I made these Play-Doh mats to help with sight word fluency. They were a hit!  I am excited to break them out again this year real soon!  I love that I can differentiate within my center with these, as the mats are numbered by list.




This year {starting very soon!} I will be introducing my number and number word doh mats!  I am excited for this because I have noticed already that a lot of my little ones have difficulty forming their numbers.  I also noticed when assessing last week that many do not know their number words.


Do your students need practice with letter formation?  This Play Doh Alphabet pack is for you, if so!  This is great for pre-k, kinders, first graders, and even second graders!  Click below to snag it for free!



And one last thing...If you haven't seen Magic Play Doh, it's a fun little activity to do on the first day or when you are learning colors/color words.  Click below for your freebie.


I hope you found this post beneficial and will explore the possibility of using doh in your classroom!
xo
Megan 

3 comments:

melinda miller said... Best Blogger Tips[Reply to comment]Best Blogger Templates

I have been trying to figure out a way to incorporate it into Social Studies. I am going to use it with teaching a Math concept and for Science in having the students make the magic playdough, but integrating Social Studies is the only issue? Any ideas? This would be for kindergarten?

Mrs. Leeby said... Best Blogger Tips[Reply to comment]Best Blogger Templates

Love your doh! My kids were cray cray today and I just sent it home with them. Help!!!

:)
xoxo
Irene

Just Wild About Teaching said... Best Blogger Tips[Reply to comment]Best Blogger Templates

I am loving this idea. Seems like such an adorable way to get the kids working. Thanks for sharing girly. I definitely have to use it with letters in the beginning of the year. =)

Just Wild About Teaching

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