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Playdough Lesson Plans

Playdough Engineering

Activity:  

Playdough Engineering

Lesson plan developed by Aurora Tollestrup, BS Ed

Age Group:

• School-age (grades 2-3)

Objectives:  

Children will:

• work together to solve an engineering problem by designing a structure from common materials.

Playdough Engineering

Washington State K-12 Science Learning Standard:

​Grade 2-3

• Big Idea: Application (APP)
• Core Content: Solving Problems
• 2-3 APPA Simple problems can be solved through a technological design process that includes: defining the problem, gathering information, exploring ideas, making a plan, testing possible solutions to see which is best, and communicating the results.

Materials: 

• playdough
• popsicle sticks
• large book
• paper (or science journal)
• pencil    

Procedure: 

• Divide the children into small groups and provide a lump of playdough, some popsicle sticks and pencil and paper.
• Instruct groups to build a structure out of playdough and popsicle sticks that will be able to hold the book.
• Encourage children to use collaboration and to make drawings and depictions with their plan for the structure.
• Test out each group’s structure by placing the book on the structures one at a time.
• Discuss the differences in structures while explaining that there is no “right” way to build one.
• Lastly, have groups analyze the process in which they built their structures.

​

• Ask guiding questions such as:
  • Did your group make an initial plan? How did that work for your end result?
  • How would you describe your group’s communication skills?
  • If you were to do this activity again, what would you change? Why?

Assessment: 

• Observe and record the group’s collaborative skills when trying to solve the engineering problem. Also make note of the ending analytical process and of children’s ability to critique their experiences.

 

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Sensory Play

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A Dough by Many Names

In the 1930s a substance was accidentally created to clean wallpaper. The creator of this substance quickly learned that children loved it as a toy! Later, the recipe was adapted to contain child-friendly ingredients and marketed as a substance called “Play-Doh.” Some refer to it as playdough, dough, slime, gak, flubber, blubber, clay, silly putty, gook, or oobleck. It is a dough that goes by many names and is arguably the most common material found in classrooms everywhere. We will refer to it as playdough for this training.

​This popular material is extremely useful for a myriad of children, ages, special needs, curriculum topics and sensory explorations. Whether you are a teacher in an infant or toddler classroom, preschool program or a school-age program, you can use play dough in tons of different ways. Let’s play!