Try to engage your child with playdough or similar material at home. The material will encourage your child to experiment with it, enjoy the sensation, and learn. Playdough is a great way to engage your child. It can support learning in so many ways! 

LANGUAGE TO USE

While your child engages with the playdough, you have an opportunity to interact with them. Talk about the process of making objects and use descriptive language to describe what has been made. 

Talk about the colours, shapes, size, thickness... For example,

- the thickness and shape of the biscuits your child made

- the colour of a ball your child formed

- the number of petals on a flower you made etc. 

Words to use

·         Long, short

·         Thick, thin

·         Big, little

·         Top, bottom

·         Next to, between

·         First, last 

·         Red, green, yellow, blue

·         1, 2, 3

·         Lots, many, few, more, less, enough

QUESTIONS TO USE

Ask questions to encourage your child to talk more about what s/he is making. For example:

·         What are you making today?

·         How many biscuits have you made?

·         What do you need to do to bake these biscuits?

·         Which is the biggest biscuit?

·         What is your favourite type of biscuit? 

-         How many biscuits do you need to make so that each person in the family gets one?

Remember to talk to your child in your home language.

More about Your child's learning: 

This activity can support your child's learning in so many ways! 

- Imagination and Creativity: Playdough allows children to use their imagination, and thus facilitates creativity and learning important to creative activities such as colours, textures and sculpting. 

- Muscle strength and motor skills: The shaping and rolling of the material helps to build muscle strength in fingers and hands – building the muscles and fine motor skills needed for writing. 

- Cognitive skills: Engaging with playdough involves planning – setting goals, working out what needs to be done, adjusting plans etc. – all of those facilitate children’s cognitive development and self-regulation skills. 

- Maths skills: Children can experiment with size and shape, and they can use play-doh creations to count, add and subtract, thus facilitating math skills. 

- Literacy skills: Finally, children can be encouraged to form letters in the alphabet or words with playdough and thus learn about literacy.

The Home Start Website offers some really helpful short instructions on how to make and use playdough with children. Click here.