Toddler Tuesday: Play-Doh Shape Match

Ayden is finally ready to play with play-doh without trying to eat it.  Yay!!  In my classroom, I had this very table in front of a window and it was the "Play-doh Center."  Only one student at a time could sit there.  It was a place for quiet, independent play where they could gaze out the window and experience the amazing calming effects of the squishy stuff.  Needless to say, it was a favorite center.

Today, I showed Ayden how to squish the play-doh flat and use cookie cutters.  I had a shape mat that I made for my class way back when that I pulled out.  To make the mat I simply traced the cookie cutters onto construction paper with a Sharpie, labeled the shapes then laminated it.  Contact paper would work for this too if you don't have access to a laminator.

Ayden has really been into matching and puzzles and such lately so this activity went over well.  He definitely needed my assistance with flattening the dough and cutting the shapes but he tried to do it himself and was engaged with this activity for a while.  

I'm just so glad that he is ready for play-doh now!  I see it as something I'll be able to pull out when I need a few minutes of peace and all mamas need something like that in their bag of tricks!

Please share your fun play-doh ideas below!!

~Sarah

PS.  I found this speech sound development timeline helpful today and thought I'd share: 

{via}
Ayden doesn't make the /k/ very often and I wanted to make sure that was okay for his age.  Looks like that is something to be mastered in the 3rd year so his substituting it with a /p/ or /b/ sound is normal.

Flashback!  Here's what we were up to one year ago today: "Attaboy"

Thank you for stopping by Life With the Ladniers!

Please take a second to:

 Subscribe via email, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter so you'll know as soon as a new post is up!

Miss seeing what Ayden is up to everyday?  Follow us on Instagram!

You can find all of the links in the sidebar.