Spring lambs :: a play dough recipe for imaginary play

Here’s a fun play dough recipe that’s great for some imaginary play – we’re making little spring lambs!

Spring lambs :: a play dough recipe for imaginary play

As always, I used our no-cook easy play dough recipe to make some dough in minutes. I made the white dough with half plain (all purpose) flour and half cornflour (cornstarch), as just using all plain flour gives more of a yellow/beige colour. The grey dough was made with all plain flour and some black food colouring. I added in some googly eyes and let the children do the rest.

They used the play dough to make some mother sheep and sweet little lambs. Play dough is such a versatile play material, warm and soft to the touch and malleable – great for making models with. Using a homemade play dough makes if very economical to make a big batch, producing lots of dough so the children can have plenty to work with.

I set out some green card and a pot of pencils so the lambs could have a meadow to graze in.

I’m taking every opportunity I can to add in writing and drawing invitations for the children, and I’m finding that simply popping the pencils right where they’re playing (rather than on a nearby shelf) makes a big difference in how likely they are to use them. Today they drew in some fresh grass and tasty flowers for their sheep to munch.

B fetched some green play dough from our stash too, so she could make some more grass.

And we set up their toy farm alongside to extend the play possibilities. B almost always turns her play into families, so there was lots of chat about the mother sheep taking care of their little lambs.

More play dough recipe ideas for spring

If your children like play dough I think they will also love our play dough recipe for spring chicks.

Over 300 play dough ideas

Over 20,000 of you are following my PlayDough Pinterest board! It’s got over 300 ideas on it from some of the best play-dough-making bloggers around. If you’re not already, come and follow the board!

A whole year of nature play ideas

P.S. Did you know The Garden Classroom has a whole year’s worth of nature play ideas. Download your copy!

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