Make some Mint Choc Chip play dough for a fun, scented sensory pretend play time! Fantastic for using in role play ice cream parlour set ups, exploring with added extras and developing fine motor strength as they play.
As you know we are passionate about all things play dough! Ever since Cakie was 1 we have been regularly making our own and have had so much fun experimenting with different flavours, colours, added extras and creative ways to use it in play! This week we had fun making up some different play dough ice cream flavours for some ice cream van role play (coming up soon!)
The girls love to make play dough and can do most of it by themselves now, following our very easy, 4 minute no-cook recipe [adults only at the boiling water stage though!] This time we added green gel food colouring to the boiling water before we mixed it in, and then a few drops of peppermint essence at the kneading stage. They rolled the kneaded ball of dough into some green glitter and worked it in until it was evenly spread.
I cut lots of little squares to represent chocolate chips from brown craft foam and they added them to the dough to turn it into Mint Choc Chip ice cream for pretend play! We set it out with two rolled pieces of yellow craft foam (stuck along one edge) to represent cones, which they helped draw patterns onto with brown pens, more chocolate chips for decorating and some coffee scoops as an Invitation to Play together!
They got stuck straight in and took orders for ice creams from all of their toys. Scooping into the soft dough was a great fine and gross motor strengthening exercise and took a lot of concentration to form into a neat ball shape.
Cakie made ice cream signs to stick in our role play shop so that people would know what we were selling, then sold them for 5 gold coins each from our pirate treasure stash (we have a bazillion gold coins left over from Pop’s pirate party in the Spring!)
We have some more ice cream play dough flavours coming up next week so pop back and visit then!
Extend the play:
Try making menus and signs to place in a role play ice cream parlour for pretend play fun and learning
Add a range of other materials for making sprinkles and decorations, and ask the kids to design their own
Invent some brand new flavours and ask the kids to come up with wonderful names for them!
What they are learning as they play:
maths: counting out cupfuls accurately when following a recipe
creativity: using imaginations to make one object represent another in play, creating role-play scenarios
physical: fine and gross motor development through pinching, squeezing, twisting, rolling, flattening and scooping play dough with hands and added tools
Cakie: 4.9
Pop: 3.2
Bean: 15 mos
See our A-Z of play dough recipes and activities here for a huge list of fun flavours, recipes and ways to play!
Read all about the benefits of playing with play dough here, and get some inspiration for building a play dough tool kit!
This looks so inviting to play! I can’t wait to try this with my little one at home!
oh Anna. that looks amazing!
They look Yummy! This is such a fabulous idea. Aarya would like this 🙂 Pinning it.
Hi Anna,
I’m publishing an extraordinary play dough post and it would not be fit for publication if it didn’t include a post from the Queen of Play Dough :). Love your work, and will be including this post as part of my roundup.
xo P
Love,love,love!!
very disappointing to see a male porn gaming site ad here, as i browse with my kids.
Deborah I saw your comment and immediately checked my ad settings. I have no idea how something like that has shown up since all those types of ads are blocked here. I am really sorry it has shown! I only see kids toys, books and shopping type things. It is supposed to be to do with the individual’s browser history, not based on my site. I’ll send them a request to investigate, thanks
I know that when I come to this site, I never see anything indecent. Anna is right, it is usually the individuals browser history. Thanks for looking into it Anna 😉