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My three year old daughter loves Play Doh. For a long time Play Doh time was really boss Mommy around time. It started with balls. As soon as a tub of Play Doh came out, she expected me to make balls with it. My daughter would move them into various containers and occasionally smash them. Then, there were several variations on the balls, my least favorite being “rice”. To make rice, I rolled a long snake and then cut it into small pieces with Play Doh scissors. This took FOREVER and so much ended up on the ground. Thankfully, we are mostly over this stage and my daughter actually plays with Play Doh herself. To further this play, I made her several fun Play Doh mats.
My daughter got an ocean themed Play Doh toolset for her birthday. It has been a huge hit. One of the things it came with was an ocean playmat. My daughter loved it, but it quickly ripped and got old Play Doh crumbs stuck to it. I wanted to make her something that held up better. These play mats were so easy to make, they hold up really well, and the possibilities of ones to make are endless.
How to Make Play Doh Mats
Materials:
Creating:
First, I chose the pictures I wanted. I wanted to make mats that were different scenes to spark my daughter’s creativity. With all her ocean Play Doh tools, I knew I needed to make an ocean one. I decided to also make a space, house, and forest one. I got all of my pictures from Clip Safari. Then, I printed them and cut them out.
Next, I laminated all four of them. Lamination is a perfect way to easily prevent the Play Doh from sticking to the paper. It also makes the mats last a long time. I love my laminator and use it all the time.
Then, I cut out my Play Doh mats. I left a slight edge around the entire paper to keep it sealed. A trick I learned a long time ago is to make the edge the same width as your scissor blade. This allows you to cut an even amount the whole way around.
Now, it was time to grab my daughter and play. We started with the ocean scene Play Doh mat. She made a few fish of different sizes, but only let one exist at a time. So, to get a fun picture of Play Doh sea creatures on her mat, I ended up making all the animals.
Outcome of Homemade Play Doh Mats:
My daughter actually found all of the pictures before I got the chance to laminate them. She was so excited that she wanted to play with them the second I got them laminated. As I said above, she made one fish at a time to put on her mat. Then, she asked for a racetrack mat. What theme of Play Doh mat do you think your children would enjoy the most?
