# Playdough Garden > Roll out brightly colored play dough into meadows and ponds, press in fresh flowers from your yard, and add little toy animals for an open-ended pretend garden. It needs only three things and no planning. - URL: https://www.funlittles.com/colorful-play-doh-idea/ - Ages: 2–6 yrs · Difficulty: easy · Mess: low - Time: prep 15 min, activity 30 min - Works for: one-on-one, small group, whole class - Skills: pretend-play, fine-motor, sorting, colors, nature - Cautions: wheat-gluten, ingestion-risk ## Materials (one batch) - Brightly colored play dough (e.g. green, blue, red, yellow, purple) - Fresh flowers from your garden (household) - Little play animals and bugs - 1 piece Play dough roller or rolling pin (household) - Toy flowers or plastic plants (optional) ## Safety - Adult checks that the picked flowers and plants are non-toxic before toddlers handle them. Some garden plants are harmful if mouthed. - Small toy animals and bugs can be a choking hazard. Supervise closely with babies and toddlers. - Play dough isn't food. Watch little ones who still mouth things, and wash hands after play. - Most store-bought play dough contains wheat. Check the label if any child has a wheat or gluten allergy. ## Before you start - Gather flowers from your yard or garden, and check they are safe for little hands. - Pull together the kids' favorite little play animals and bugs. ## Steps 1. Pick a big flat spot to play, like a table or a wide window sill. 2. Roll the play dough flat with the roller. 3. Make the green play dough into a meadow and the blue play dough into a pond. 4. Press the flowers into the play dough, and stand the tall stems up as trees in a forest. 5. Add the animals and bugs to the garden. 6. Pretend to water the flowers, bury a seed and hide bugs in the garden. 7. Rearrange the garden: push the play dough together, or sort the dough and flowers by color. ## Tips - Instead of looking up ideas and planning, we sort of winged it. Gather your kids' favorite toys, mix them up with play dough, and voilà, you have your own play dough idea. - Bunnies and a deer trying to eat the flowers made a good opportunity to learn about pests and what they really mean. Big A immediately referenced Thumper eating only the blossoms and not the leaves. - Let the kids make the rules. For a short while the purple flowers had to go on the purple play dough, but meadows can sometimes be yellow because it is a magical meadow. - With only one roller, expect some negotiation. Big A kept offering the baby 'help', which was her way of getting more turns with the roller. ## The original post by TurkeyMom (2016) Play dough ideas are aplenty on the web. Instead of looking up on the internet and planning the activity, we sort of winged it like every other play idea. Gather your kids' favorite toys and mix it up with play-doh and viola you have own play dough idea. **Baby A:** Pay-doh, Pay-doh **Big A (giggling uncontrollably):** It’s not pay-doh say play-doh. Pl—ay—doh- She actually breaks it down for the baby and adults alike! **Baby A:** “Pay doh” Mommy S hands over red playdough **Baby A:** No. lellow (yellow) actually pointing at green. Since it has been decided by the youngest member of the family that we are squishing play dough for the afternoon, we wanted to spruce it up with something. After gathering flowers from our own lawn we settled on our very broad window sill. The girls rolled the play dough flat with Big A constantly offering Baby A help with the roller even though she clearly did not want it. Big A reasons that the baby is not strong enough to roll down the pay doh oops play dough. Her way of getting more turns with the roller. 1. Brightly colored play-doh 2. Flowers from your garden 3. Little play animals,peThat’s all you need. Simple huh? My Kids were brimming with play dough ideas. The green play dough was rolled down flat into a meadow. The blue play dough became a pond. The girls started placing the flowers into the play dough neatly separating and aligning them. Big A is big on order and arrangement. She DID NOT get that from me! The tall stems of the flowers became trees in a forest. Big A had great fun pretending to water her flowers, burying a seed, hiding bugs in the garden. There were bunnies and a deer (actually a gazelle) in the garden trying to eat the flowers and immediately she referenced Thumper eating only the blossoms and not the leaves. Good opportunity to learn about pests and what they really mean. Her play continued with different configurations. play dough together, play dough sorted out by color. For a short while the purple flowers had to go on the purple play dough. On the other hand meadows can sometimes be yellow because it is a magical meadow. We would have continued but the door bell rang and her next-door friends came over. It is so much fun playing outside in the sun with her friends than playing indoors with mommy and baby. Enjoy this colorful play dough garden activity.