Fast-forward to today and I am 100% convinced that my daughter enjoys baking so much because we spent such a lot of time experimenting with playdough.

Easy Homemade Play Dough Recipe

When making play dough with your child at home, I recommend opting for the no-cook method. This allows them to be fully involved in the process - the alternative method (cooking play dough over the stove) wouldn't really be feasible with a very young child. You can find the exact recipe that we use at the end of this post.

Some benefits of making play dough WITH your child:

• Helps boost hand-eye coordination

• Early maths skills - weighing ingredients, counting measures

• Develops fine motor skills

• Fills their cup! It's a great way to spend time together

• Builds confidence and helps to foster independence

• Introduces new vocabulary and builds language skills.

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Age Recommendations

We usually start introducing play dough (and making it) at around the age of 2-2.5 years-old. You need to be extremely careful, particularly with homemade play dough because of the high quantities of salt used.

Our Easy Homemade Play Dough Recipe

This is the method we use for making homemade play dough every single time. I just want to point out a few things though:

• Exact measurements will differ according to the ingredients you use - that's why we add the water last AND pour it gradually. You don't need to use the full quantity of water if the play dough already feels soft and springy - you definitely don't want soggy dough

• Making play dough WITH your child is an experience. You wont end up with perfect dough but it WILL be a fantastic learning experience for them.

Download the recipe card:

Basic Playdough Recipe This Playful Home

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No-Salt Play Dough

If your child tends to put everything in their mouths, then try this no-salt homemade play dough recipe instead.

Ingredients

• 2 cups of plain flour

• 1 tablespoon of rapeseed oil

• Water (cooled boiled water added gradually)

• Lemon juice

• Optional - Lemon rind / mint / rosemary

Method for salt free homemade play dough

1. Add the plain flour, rapeseed oil and a squeeze of lemon juice, then mix well. The mixture should look like breadcrumbs

2. Dribble water in gradually and stir until the mixture starts to combine.

3. Knead with your hands. If it is too wet, add more flour and if the mixture is too dry, add a little more water.

4. Grate orange / lemon rind on top

5. Chop rosemary / mint

6. Mix both in well by kneading again.

Recommended age: 12 months plus

This recipe will only last a day or two and you will need to store it in the fridge.

Homemade Play Dough Care Tips

Ingredients

After spending the first half of the year in Austria without being able to source cream of tartar, I can honestly say that it makes the biggest difference in the success of the play dough. We tried using lemon or lime juice instead but it just wasn't the same. I've since started ordering cream of tartar from Amazon (is that crazy?!) and it's made the biggest difference!

Without cream of tartar, the dough would get crumbly fast, but now we have lovely soft, smooth play dough again - yay!

Storage

You've gone to the effort of making the play dough, you need to store in correctly! We tend to wrap ours in ziplock bags (which we reuse for new batches) then we seal the dough inside a IKEA GLIS container.

Generally speaking, keeping the dough in a cool dry place will be enough to make it last for up to 4 weeks. However, in the summer we have occasionally kept the dough in the fridge to stop it from going sticky.

What to do with dry dough:

If your little one has been playing for some time with the play dough then it is likely to get dry. If needed at the end of a play session, we add a drop or two of water to the dough using a pipette to revive it. Works like a charm!

How to prevent sticky dough:

When making dough, the best thing we've found is to knead it by hand to get all of the stickiness out. If you're still finding the texture a little too much on the sticky side however, keep rolling into small amounts of flour until you get the right, 'springy' consistency.

The activities shared below are generally suitable for children aged 2 onwards. Most are pulled from the archives, but as you can see from the photos below my children (now aged 7 and 9) still love to get involved.

In this post:

• flower collage

• 3D portraits

• Spring scented playdough

• How to make rainbow chickpeas

• Spring themed scavenger hunts

Flower Collage

Use dried flowers and recycled cardboard to create this pretty flower collage.

In the past, I’ve used old Mother’s Day bouquets (since UK Mother’s Day falls before Easter). However, petals and herbs from the garden work just as well - we tend to use ones that have past their best.

I often save back flowers for play and crafts. I typically air dry them between sheets of paper towels. However there are a few other methods you can try, such as microwaving or using a dehydrator.

Resources:

• dried flowers or herbs

• pva glue

• cardboard

• scissors

Instructions

1. Cut out cardboard in the shape of Easter Eggs, bunnies and flowers

2. Place items out as an invitation to create (as shown above)

3. Invite your child to choose a shape - get crafting!

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The weather in the UK has been glorious recently, so I decided to create two more spring-themed nature treasure activities.

This time, I created ‘find and colour’ printables, designed to get the children thinking about the colours typically found in nature during spring.

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As a family, we go on plenty of nature walks and after school , we tested out this printable before sharing it with you.

I put the treasure hunts into a reusable plastic wallet and provided each child with a whiteboard pen. We walked around the village and down to the canal, to spot as many signs of nature as we could.

The treasure hunt was a lesson in really slowing down in order to properly spot the signs of spring. Some things would have been easy to miss, such as the only lamb in a field of sheep or the swans building a nest on the canal bank. We had to use most of our senses in order to find the items on the list.

When we returned home, the children (mostly) coloured in the treasure hunt items from memory. It was a great way to connect with nature, and really think about the signs of spring. The children noticed that many of the flowers that are currently in bloom are yellow and purple.

Educational Benefits

• Spending time outdoors and connecting with nature

• Using the senses to see, hear, touch and smell the signs of spring

• Learning about the world around us: what happens when nature starts to ‘wake-up’?

• Gaining new vocabulary: e.g. the names of flowers or the colours found in nature.

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I’m kind of obsessed with frogs. So when I was scrolling socials this morning and saw that it was World Frog Day, I knew I had to put a quick activity together for when the children finished school.

The purpose of the day is to raise awareness of the importance of frogs and other amphibians. You can read more about it via worldfrogday.org

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For very young children, play is the best way to talk about, and celebrate frogs. Combine this with a non-fiction or fiction book about frogs.

Talk to your child about:

• habitats - where do frogs live and why?

• diet - what do frogs eat?

• lifecycle - what happens to frogs as they grow from a tadpole to a fully grown frog?

You can find plenty of frog facts on The National Geographic Kids.

A quick sensory invitation to play:

Since I hadn’t pre-planned this activity, I decided to make a green foam base for our frog pond. I then searched my resource cupboard for anything green or frog themed. The whole thing took less than 5 minutes to put together.

How to make foam:

• 1 cup of water

• 1 tablespoon of dish soap

• Food dye (optional)

Whizz all of the ingredients in a blender, or whisk by hand to get a foamy consistency.

Suggested resources:

• a tray

• green themed loose parts - e.g. cupcake cases, pompoms, buttons, lolly sticks

• frog figurines

• a frog themed book - e.g. The Tale of Jeremy Fisher

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Happy St Patrick’s Day to all who celebrate! ☘️

This post is a little later than I had originally anticipated but prepping St Patrick’s Day themed lessons for my students this week reminded me of some really simple themed activities I did with my children when they were younger.

I’ve recreated some of those today, ready for when my children get home. After all, play doesn’t have an age limit.

I haven’t bought anything specifically for these activities, instead choosing to use recycling, loose parts and open-ended toys.

Playdough

I used our basic playdough recipe, then added green food dye to make a St Patrick’s Day themed invitation to play.

This activity is a great way to work the fine motor skills, because picking up the pony beads is really quite tricky!

I like to present play dough invitations on a wooden platter so that the children can decide how they want to play with the materials.

Use the photo above as inspiration, but you can sub in other small loose parts such as sequins and pompoms.

Download our basic play dough recipe below:

Basic Playdough Recipe

437KB ∙ PDF file

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Sensory Play Tray

This photo is from three years ago, before my youngest even started school! For this sensory play activity, I used dyed chickpeas, buttons and magnetic rainbow chips1.

The idea was to collect all of the rainbow chips and add them to the golden treasure chest (in reality, an old ‘pirate’ craft from years before!)

Click on the button below to find out how to make the rainbow chickpeas, or alternatively, substitute for rainbow rice, lentils or cereals.

how to make rainbow chickpeas

Leprechaun Trap

The Leprechaun trap is such a fun activity because it can be used with a variety of age groups.

For pre-schoolers, present a variety of loose parts, open ended materials and recycling on a large tray, then invite them to create the Leprechaun ‘trap.’

For older students, invite them to view the materials first, then create a plan sharing their design. This also leads into a writing activity that encourages children to use adjectives to write about the trap.

More details on this activity for home educators and school students will be shared on my brand new page, shortly.

If you enjoyed these activities, please share with a friend and tap the ❤️

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Spring is officially here and with that, a real chance to explore the outdoors. Whilst it’s beneficial to get children outdoors in all weathers, Spring brings the opportunity to get outside for longer and (hopefully) without the need to wear layers and layers of waterproof clothing!

The This Playful Home Spring Scavenger Hunt is designed to help young children explore outdoors with their senses, providing opportunities to see, hear, smell and touch Spring!

The printable version of the Spring Scavenger Hunt is available to members. Find out more about becoming a member, by clicking the button below:

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Christmas is an exciting time, especially for young children but it can also be stressful for us as parents when we have a million things on our plates. The majority of these activities take less than 5 minutes to set up and most can be used more than once.

5 Benefits of Invitations to Play:

All play invitations have many benefits, but it can feel off putting when the play is messy! As well as being a great way to make connections to the world around them, here are some more reasons why you should try these play ideas:

1. Gives children the freedom to explore new materials which in turn fosters curiosity and imagination. There is no right or wrong outcome when it comes to sensory play.

2. Helps to develop fine motor skills and hand strength. This is crucial for learning to write later on down the line

3. Encourages communication and language development. Play invitations can be a social activity, particularly if you invite friends to join in!

4. Helps to develop spatial awareness as children begin to understand the environment around them via exploration of materials.

5. Boosts brain development which in turn helps ability to problem solve. Sensory play is a great introduction to STEAM learning.

You can read more about invitations to play here:

Age Recommendations

All of the Christmas invitations to play are suitable for children aged from 3 onwards and are intended to be done under supervision. If your child is at the stage where they put items into their mouths avoid small object that might pose a choking hazard – pompoms and small beads, for example.

10 Christmas Invitation to Play Ideas

Simply use these ideas as inspiration for play at home. You don’t need to use the exact same resources as I did, but here are some core materials that we use for play all year round.

• A tray – the IKEA Flisat table or a tuff spot tray are great purchase options for sensory play

• wooden serving platter

• Learning Resources fine motor set

• pipettes

• wooden scoops and tongs

• small craft resources – e.g. buttons, beads and pompoms

1. Create a Christmas tree with loose parts

If you have a set of magnetic tiles, invite your child to create a Christmas tree. Let them think about the shapes that would work best and provide some small loose parts and Christmas decorations.

Try to include some magnetic items (like jingle bells), to add a STEAM based element to play. Whilst it’s tempting to simple say – ‘use triangle to make the tree’. Allow your child the opportunity to explore for themselves too.

2. Explore Decorations

We all know that children love to explore the Christmas tree and decorations. One of the ways you can avoid getting the tree pulled down is to provide a small selection of Christmas ornaments for them to explore.

When you add in mirrors to this exploration, they – quite literally – add a new dimension to the play invitation.

3. Washi Tape

Make a basic triangle shape from washi tape, then invite your toddler or pre-schooler to decorate it. You can use loose parts from your toy collection, Christmas decorations or recycling to make this work.

4. Tuff Spot Tray

For this invitation to play, I drew a large Christmas tree onto a tuff spot tray by using a paint stick. Then I provided a selection of Christmas decorations and loose parts so that my children could decorate it.

5. Sensory Play with real snow

Over the Winter months, I often leave an empty IKEA Trofast tray outside in the garden when snow is predicted. Once we have a full tray of snow, I add a selection of liquid food colouring into the Flisat table so the children can explore colour mixing. An even easier and less messy version of this is featured below.

Even in the Winter months, we try to get outside as much as possible - and having the right clothes certainly helps with this goal. Below, my daughter had a joy-filled morning playing with snow and leftover pumpkins in the mud kitchen.

6. Polar Express Sensory Bin

Polar Express is a classic Christmas story which makes it ideal for bookish play too. For this Christmas Invitation to play, we simply added some expired chocolate pops to a Flisat table along with scoops and cups.

7. Starbucks ‘Red Cups’ Sensory Bin

If you’re a Starbucks fan, Christmas time is also synonymous with red cups. Whilst we try our best to take along our Keep Cups, sometimes we end up with a takeaway coffee cup or two! When this happens, we simply wash out the cups and reuse them for play.

To make the bubble foam:

This is so simple to make and looks really pretty too! All you need is:

• 2 tbsp of dish soap

• 2/3 cup of water

• splash of food colouring

We made this batch in a food processor, but whisking by hand works just as well.

8. Christmas Themed Play Dough Box

Every season, we tend to make at least one batch of homemade playdough. Featured below is vanilla and cinnamon playdough that smelt absolutely divine!

Storing playdough in an IKEA Glis box is also a great way to set up an easy invitation to play that can be brought out repeatedly.

9. Letters to Santa

This really simple Christmas Invitation to play is great for children who are just starting to learn how to write. ‘Letters to Santa’ will help your child to make marks on the paper, then use stickers and stampers to personalise it.

At this stage, don’t worry about the writing – it’s very likely there will just be a few scribbles on the paper! The point is, your child will start to make connections between what their hand is doing and what happens on the paper.

10. Hot Chocolate Playdough Box

Chocolate playdough is one of our favourite playdough options for the winter months. Not only does it smell gorgeous, but it really evokes the rich scents of Christmas-time hot chocolate.

Find out More about Sensory Play

Coming Soon

Over the next few months I’ll be transferring all of my website posts onto Substack. These will be free for everyone to view so I’ve also made the decision to turn off the paywall for archived posts.

Due to the sheer volume of posts that I will be transferring, I won’t bombard you with them in email form. I will however do a weekly round-up email so you can browse the content that appeals.

I will be transferring my domain name www.thisplayfulhome.com over to Substack. This means that the people who discover me via Pinterest and Instagram will still be able to see my content.

As a family we just love all things Autumn and Halloween, so over the years we’ve created a lot of activities. Whilst I’m nowhere near done moving everything over just yet, I thought this list of ideas might be helpful as we head into half-term.

More Autumn and Halloween Ideas are still available on my original website for now. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to move them all over before going on holiday.

Popular on Pinterest

Here are links to my Halloween and Autumn posts that are currently performing well on Pinterest:

Hammering Pumpkins!

Pinecone Nature Art

10 Simple Sensory Play Ideas for Autumn

Room on the Broom Playdough Invitation

Family Rhythms

Play Invitations

Share This Playful Home

Art & Crafts

Cute and Simple Halloween Crafts: Suggested Materials

Gather the following materials before you start making your simple Halloween crafts. If you don’t have all of these materials to hand, consider alternative resources that you might already have in your craft cupboard or recycling box.

• Cardboard

• Toilet paper tubes

• Egg cartons

• Chenille sticks

• yarn

• pompoms

•  box of Googly Eyes

• Glue Gun and Glue Sticks

• Scissors / craft knife

• Pencil

You can read more about suggested art and craft resources to collect here. 

6 Cute and Simple Halloween crafts to try with your kids

The whole point of these simple Halloween crafts is to do something creative, yet low-pressure as a family. They don’t have to be perfect of Pinterest worthy!

1. Egg carton spiders

The first of our simple Halloween crafts to try with your children. This particular activity is ideal for a cosy Autumn family afternoon in or as an easy craft to do during the school holidays.

You will need:

• an egg carton

• chenille sticks / pipe cleaners

• non-toxic black paint

• googly eyes

• glue gun

• washi tape

• paint markers

Steps:

1. Prepare Materials: Gather all your craft supplies.

2. Cut the Egg Carton: Cut the egg carton into individual sections, one for each spider.

3. Paint the Egg Carton: Coat the egg carton sections with black paint and let them dry.

4. Create Spider Legs: Cut chenille sticks into eight equal pieces for the spider’s legs.

5. Attach Legs: Use a glue gun to attach the eight chenille stick legs to the underside of the egg carton, bending the ends to create “feet.”

6. Add Googly Eyes: Glue googly eyes to the front of the egg carton.

7. Decorate with Tape or Markers (Optional): Use washi tape or paint markers to add patterns or details.

8. Let It Dry: Allow the spiders to dry completely.

9. Display: Use these cute spiders as Halloween decorations in various ways.

2. Baby Zombie

The problem with a lot of Halloween crafts is that they are a little scary for young children. One of the ways we aim to embrace the season (without making it scary) is to lean into cute and simple Halloween crafts.

This baby zombie is one such example – there’s something about giant googly eyes that makes anything cute!

You will need:

• cardboard cut into a circle

• jumbo sized novelty googly eyes – we bought ours from the Halloween section of a craft store

• chenille sticks

• glue gun

• art marker

• craft knife

Steps:

1. Prepare Materials: Gather your craft supplies.

2. Cardboard Base: Use the circular cardboard as the zombie’s base.

3. Attach Googly Eyes: Glue the jumbo-sized googly eyes to the cardboard for the zombie’s eyes.

4. Craft Zombie Hair: Create hair with chenille sticks attached to the top of the cardboard.

5. Draw a Mouth: Use an art marker to draw a fun, crooked mouth beneath the eyes.

6. Add Extra Details: Customize the zombie with features like stitches or scars using the art marker.

7. Use Craft Knife Safely: If needed, use a craft knife with caution for any cardboard cutting.

8. Display: Your cute baby zombie craft is ready to display as a whimsical Halloween decoration or craft project.

3. Cardboard Tube Cats

These cute cardboard cats are ideal for a cosy Autumn family afternoon in or as an easy craft to do during the school holidays.

You will need:

• toilet paper tubes

• black paint

• googly eyes

• washi tape

• chenille sticks

• paint markers

• glue gun

• scissors

Steps:

1. Prepare Materials: Gather all your crafting supplies.

2. Paint the Tubes: Apply black paint to the toilet paper tubes. Let them dry.

3. Cut Tube for Ears: Cut a section from one end of the tube to create cat ears.

4. Attach Googly Eyes: Use a glue gun to attach googly eyes to the upper part of the tube for the cat’s eyes.

5. Draw a Face: Use paint markers to draw the cat’s nose, mouth, and whiskers below the eyes.

6. Create Ears: Bend chenille sticks into ear shapes and attach them to the cut tube ends as the cat’s ears.

7. Tail and Paws: Cut chenille sticks into smaller pieces to create the cat’s tail and paws. Attach them to the tube.

8. Washi Tape Collar: Add a collar made of washi tape around the cat’s neck.

9. Personalize and Decorate: Use paint markers or additional washi tape to add personalized details.

10. Let It Dry: Ensure all elements are securely attached and allow your Halloween cats to dry completely.

11. Display: Place your cute Halloween cat decorations around your home to add a festive and spooky touch to your Halloween decor.

4. Rock spider and fly

Who doesn’t end up with a pocket full of rocks after a family walk? Rocks are a great natural resource that can be used for simple Halloween crafts – including this spider and fly idea.

You will need:

• rocks

• chenille sticks

• googly eyes

• black paint

• glue gun

Steps:

1. Prepare Materials: Gather all the materials you’ll need for the craft.

2. Rock Selection: Choose two rocks – one larger for the spider’s body and one smaller for the fly.

3. Paint the Rocks: Paint both rocks with black paint. Allow them to dry completely.

4. Spider’s Legs: Cut four chenille sticks into equal parts to create the spider’s legs. Bend the legs into a “V” shape.

5. Attach Legs: Use a glue gun to attach the bent chenille stick legs to the larger rock (spider’s body) to create its legs. Two legs should be on each side.

6. Spider’s Eyes: Glue googly eyes to the front of the spider’s body.

7. Fly’s Wings and Legs: Cut a chenille stick into two equal pieces to create the fly’s wings. Bend them into wing shapes and attach them to the smaller rock (fly’s body) using the glue gun. Cut another chenille stick into small sections and attach these as the fly’s legs.

8. Fly’s Eyes: Glue googly eyes to the front of the fly’s body.

9. Let It Dry: Ensure all the elements are securely attached and allow your rock spider and fly to dry completely.

10. Display: Place your spider and fly rocks as whimsical and spooky decorations on a table top or windowsill.

5. Cute Ghost Mobile

This super easy cute ghost craft is ideal for pre-schoolers and young children alike. All you really need is a few toilet paper rolls and lets be honest, what family doesn’t go through a whole heap of these each week?

Every year, we try to make some seasonal art that will be displayed in the play space. Last year, we made cute mixed media pumpkins from old pizza boxes and this year, we’ve gone for a mobile. These make great (and authentic) artistic additions to the kid’s space. 

We recently featured this simple Halloween craft on a separate blog post. You can read all about it here.  

6. Mixed Media Pumpkin Collage

We personally prefer our Halloweens on the cute rather than creepy end of the scale – that’s why we loved making this pumpkin collage.

All you need is some cardboard from your recycling box and any orange, black and green craft resources that you might have.

This simple pumpkin collage craft is ideal for pre-schoolers and is a great way to work on developing fine motor skills whilst doing something creative.

You can read more about this craft here.

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This post originally featured on my website, thisplayfulhome.com. I am now in the process of transferring all of my work onto Substack. You can read more about the changes here.

Why do Autumn fine motor activities?

Fine motor skills are really important, especially in the early years. There’s a number of activities that you can do at home with your toddler and pre-schoolers to help aid this.

Whilst it is more than okay to repeat the same type of activities over and over again, sometimes it is fun to theme what you are doing to the season. In the case of Autumn, there are so many natural resources – such as mini pumpkins, conkers, sunflowers and pinecones – that can help aid the development of fine motor skills.

Here’s 4 reasons why it’s important to work on those fine motor skills:

1. Foundation for Writing: Developing fine motor skills lays the groundwork for writing. Precise hand movements, such as holding a crayon or pencil, require well-developed fine motor skills. Strengthening these skills in early childhood prepares children for successful handwriting later on.

2. Independence in Self-Care: Fine motor skills are crucial for self-care tasks like dressing, buttoning, zipping, and tying shoelaces. As children master these skills, they gain a sense of independence and confidence in taking care of themselves.

3. Enhanced Concentration: Activities that engage fine motor skills often require focus and attention to detail. This concentration is transferable to academic tasks, enabling children to pay attention in school, follow instructions, and complete assignments more effectively.

4. Problem-Solving and Creativity: Fine motor activities often involve problem-solving and creativity. Whether it’s figuring out how to manipulate small objects or creating intricate artwork, these skills foster critical thinking and imaginative expression.

Sunflower Petal Pluck

Early in the season, you’ll usually find an abundance of sunflowers. Once they have passed their best, why not use the sunflowers for an easy Autumn fine motor activity? Simply invite your child to pluck the petals. Once they are done, use the petals in mud kitchen potions.

Pumpkin rescue

Mini pumpkins are so much fun and can be used in for this  easy Autumn fine motor idea. Simply wrap some elastic bands around the mini pumpkins and invite your child to ‘rescue’ the pumpkins by taking the bands off.

Sticker Decoration

Decorating pumpkins is hard in the early years! This simple Autumn fine motor activity just requires a sticker sheet and a pumpkin! Invite your toddler to peel and stick the stickers for the easiest pumpkin decoration activity around.

Woodland Play dough Invitation

Play dough is a staple activity for fine motor skills – to make it Autumn themed, try our Pumpkin Spice play dough or use coffee grounds and cinnamon instead. Add a few woodland themed toys or nature treasures, then explore the prints that have been left in the dough.

Gourd Geoboard

This activity is a really fun twist on a standard geoboard. We used large drawing pins because they we’re sturdy and didn’t fall out when the elastics were wrapped around them. This is a great Autumn fine motor activity for exploring shapes and lines, as well as developing hand strength.

Painting Pumpkins

This is one of the most creative ways to develop fine motor skills during the Autumn months. You can read the full blog post about this activity here. 

Leaf Confetti

People often think of fine motor skills as a way to develop writing only, but other skills also need to be worked on – including how to use scissors correctly. The abundance of leaves during the cooler months means that making leaf confetti is the perfect Autumn fine motor activity.

Hammering Pumpkins

This is one of our absolute favourites for developing fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. You can read more about the benefits of this activity here. 

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This post originally featured on my website, thisplayfulhome.com. I am now in the process of transferring all of my work onto Substack. You can read more about the changes here.

Making playdough, and then playing with it, is such a great way for young children to develop their fine motor skills and hand strength. Playdough is also a low-mess sensory play activity too – what a winner!

Furthermore, creating themed activities helps very young children to make connections to the world around them. If you celebrate Halloween as part of your Autumn family traditions, then this will help your child to understand the celebrations in a playful way.

Suggested Resources:

I always recommend that you use what you have around the house, rather than buy items specifically for play – that is, unless, you intend to use them year after year.

Look around your house for items that might go with a Halloween theme – beads, pompoms or craft sticks in black and orange, for example.

Here’s what we used in our Halloween playdough kit:

• small beads

• craft sticks

• homemade orange pumpkin spice playdough 

• homemade basic playdough, dyed black

• small wooden Halloween decorations from a local craft store

• paper cases

• A GLIS box from IKEA

Handy resources to create playdough invitations include:

• cork place mats or serving boards

• cake tins

• additional Halloween decorations – e.g. spooky houses or spiders

• Autumnal loose parts 

Whilst we did make our own playdough here (recipes linked above), it is absolutely not essential! If you don’t have the time to make the playdough yourself, or would simply prefer not to, there’s plenty of brands available. In addition to the classic ‘Play Doh’ brand, there’s now so many small businesses that sell beautifully scented playdough. Search etsy or Instagram to find businesses near to where you live.

Play Ideas for a Halloween playdough kit:

The whole idea of this Halloween playdough kit is to provide a simple playdough invitation for your children. There’s many different directions your child might want to take this activity. Here are some ideas if you need some inspiration:

• spooky small world (as shown in the photo below)

• make faces (as shown in the photo above)

• use Halloween themed cookie cutters to make shapes

• roll natural resources such as pinecones in the dough to make prints

• create pumpkins

• make a bookish themed activity with your favourite Halloween book

• make monsters

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This post originally featured on my website, thisplayfulhome.com. I am now in the process of transferring all of my work onto Substack. You can read more about the changes here.

Natural resources can be used for so many Autumn themed activities – including loose parts play , however my 7-year-old daughter will often gravitate towards potion making.The great thing about this Autumn potion – or indeed any potion – is the fact you can make it more scientific as your child gets older.

Suggested Resources for an Autumn Potion

Here are just ideas for what you can use in an Autumn potion. Availability of the items below will depend on where you live.

• Leaves

• Pinecones

• Twigs and Branches

• Acorns

• Chestnuts / Conkers

• Seed Pods

• Pebbles and Stones

• Pine Needles

• Fallen Flowers

• Bark

• Dried Grass

• Sunflower petals

• Feathers

• Small Pinecones

• Aromatic Herbs

Ensure that any items you gather for your Autumn potion are safe for children to handle and play with, and always supervise them during outdoor activities. Some items listed here might be considered unsuitable for very young children who still put items in their mouth.

In addition to natural resources you can also add:

• bicarbonate of soda with vinegar – to make the potion fizz

• bath bombs

• Halloween sprinkles

• dried herbs or tea

Resources:

• tuff spot tray / large tray to catch any spills

• old cooking pans and utensils

• pipettes

• fine motor tools / tongs

• baking trays/ cupcake trays

• plastic cauldron

• food dye

• Safety goggles – for any potions you make that have a chemical reaction. Always do your research before mixing ingredients together. 

How to Set up the Autumn Potion Tray

If you want to make an Autumn potion with your child, it’s best done outside where your child can experiment without having to worry about the mess that they make.

Set up all of the resources and ingredients on a large tray in advance and present as an invitation to play for your child to explore.  Then let them use this materials as they see fit – allowing them to see what happens, for example, when vinegar and bicarbonate of soda is added together – there is nothing quite like seeing this reaction through the eyes of a child for the first time!

If you’re worried about materials being wasted or used up too quickly, place them into spray bottles or jars. Remind your child that the only ingredients available are the ones on the tray – this often helps them to slow down!

Potion Play for the Middle Years

As your child gets older, play is still important and anything that encourages them to embrace STEM activities is a major win. Most weekends, my daughter can be found making potions – often with her best friend.

Whilst we often just use whatever we have in the house, you may also wish to start introducing scientific concepts.

This can sometimes be a tricky balance. You don’t want to turn everything into a school lesson, but at the same time, there’s so many opportunities to learn through play.

Here are some gentle ways to include STEM learning:

• Ask, ‘I wonder…’ questions. E.g. I wonder what will happen when we mix x and y together? or ‘I wonder why the potion fizzed when these ingredients were mixed?’

• Try not to just give your child the answer – even when you know it! Encourage research by looking up answers in a science book or on a kid friendly education site.

• Include accurate vocabulary such as solids, liquids and gasses.

This post originally featured on my website, thisplayfulhome.com. I am now in the process of transferring all of my work onto Substack. You can read more about the changes here.

Are loose parts toys?

What does the term even mean?

There is, in fact, a whole pedagogy behind loose parts. The term was first coined by architect Simon Nicholson in 1971 when he wrote an article called , ‘The Theory of Loose Parts: How not to cheat children’ in the Landscape Architecture magazine.

In the article, Nicholson theorised that we are at our most creative when we can manipulate the world around us. However, the opportunity to do so is not always readily available:

Creativity is for the gifted few: the rest of us are compelled to live in environments constructed by the gifted few, listen to the gifted few’s music, use the gifted few’s inventions and art, and read the poems, fantasies and plays by the gifted few. This is what our education and culture conditions us to believe, and this is a culturally induced and perpetuated lie.

Simon Nicholson

Because of this, Nicholson proposed that more variables (loose parts) should be included within classrooms – and other educational settings – to help foster inventiveness and creativity in children:

In any environment, both inventiveness and creativity, and the possibility of discovery, are directly proportional to the number and kind of variables in it.

Simon Nicholson

Although Simon Nicholson is credited with coining the term ‘loose parts’, children have always tinkered with random objects and nature treasures.

If you think about a child’s ability to turn a stick into just about anything or the jokes about children playing more with the cardboard box rather than the present, children can and do play creatively with a whole range of objects – we just need to provide them with opportunities to do so.

Items to Collect for Autumn:

Mini Pumpkins: Perfect for stacking or pretend play.

Conkers (Horse Chestnuts): Great for counting or making patterns.

Pine Cones: Useful for texture exploration or as ‘food’ in pretend play.

Leaves: For colour sorting, crafting and mud kitchen play

Twigs: Ideal for building structures or making shapes.

Acorns: Suitable for counting games or as money in a play shop.

Smooth Stones: Can be used for storytelling, painting, or stacking.

Corn Husks: These can be used for crafting or in sensory bins.

Pompoms: Offer a soft texture and can represent fruits, animals, or just fun elements.

Dried Orange Slices: Ideal for sensory exploration or as decorations.

Fabric Scraps: For making flags, costumes, or other crafts.

Buttons: Useful for colour sorting, counting, or crafting.

Feathers: Can be used in storytelling or as costume elements.

Bark: Good for creating ‘roads’ in a mini-city or ‘walls’ for a fairy house.

Craft Sticks: Ideal for counting, sorting, or making imprints in playdough.

Beads: Excellent for stringing, sorting, or laying out patterns.

Corks: These float, making them perfect for water play.

Rubber Bands: Can be used for crafting or to bind other loose parts together.

Foam Shapes: For crafting, sorting, and building.

Straws: These can be used for building structures or threading beads.

You can also add toys from your play space into an Autumn loose parts box. The following makes for great additions:

• Grapat coins and rings

• Grapat or Grimms peg dolls

• Woodland animal figurines

• Store- bought loose parts from companies such as Grapat and Tick-it

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Play Invitations to try:

Autumn Loose Parts in Small world play

There’s something so sweet about using real mini pumpkins in play. In the photo below, my daughter had taken her Maileg mice on a trip to the pumpkin patch.

Exploring mathematical concepts:

What’s heavier and what’s lighter? All you need is a weighing scales in addition to the Autumn loose parts to explore basic mathematical concepts with pre-schoolers.

Pre-writing shapes and lines

Before learning to write, children need to be able to create basic shapes and lines. One of the earliest ways to practise this is by copying the pre-writing shapes with loose parts – as shown below.

Mirror Exploration

Placing the Autumn loose parts onto a mirror can help young children explore reflection. Use a Perspex (non-breakable mirror) with very young children.

Note, if you do this activity outside like we did, make sure that the mirror is not placed in direct sunlight!

Crossing the midline

Pinecones and conkers are a great resource for crossing the midline exercises – that is where the dominant hand crosses over to the other side of the body. Working on this helps children to become more competent writers in the future.

Nature Shape Match

Puzzles and matching activities help young children to work on their problem solving skills. To recreate this activity, simply collect a few nature treasures, then draw around them with a black marker. Place all of the items into a basket and invite your child to match the shapes.

Number Match with conkers

Number recognition, along with subitising and one to one correspondence is an important part of the early years of becoming a confident mathematician. Games like this simple conker match could be used in a variety of ways to help children become more familiar with numbers.

Mud Kitchen

Take the Autumn loose parts you have collected outside to make recipes or potions.

Age Recommendations

Because of the small parts used here, I wouldn’t recommend the activities for children under the age of three. Please also be aware that conkers are, so would be unsuitable for children who put objects in their mouths.

Key Benefits

Loose parts play can have many benefits for little learners. Depending on the way play goes, it can have the following benefits:

• Creative thinking – how to create with the items produced

• Problem solving

• Connecting to the world around us – e.g. going on a nature hunt then using the treasures for play.

• Early math – e.g. counting or making shapes

• Language development – introducing new and seasonal words such as pumpkin, leaves and Autumn

• Development of fine motor skills

The abundance of pumpkins during harvest season means that there are plenty of ways to play. This post is a round-up of our ideas for toddlers and pre-schoolers.

Age Recommendations

All of these pumpkin ideas are suitable for children aged from 3 onwards and are intended to be done under supervision. If your child is at the stage where they put items into their mouths avoid small object that might pose a choking hazard - pompoms and small beads, for example.

Benefits:

• Fine motor skills: using kitchen utensils to work on pincer grip and hand strength as well as removing the seeds

• Hand-eye coordination: to scoop and pour or apply stickers

• Crossing the mid-line: using the tools to move the dominant hand across the body

• Early Math: estimating / counting how many scoops it will take to fill the pumpkin gives children basic understanding of capacity

• Role play: pretending to be in the kitchen and make a soup, pie or coffee

• Connections to the world around us: understanding about seeds and how we can use them to grow more pumpkins in the future

1. Pumpkin Patch

You will need:

• Dyed rice in Autumn colours – we opted from red, orange and yellow

• Pumpkins

• Pinecones or other nature treasures

• Assortment of kitchen utensils or fine motor tools

• Recycling such as egg cartons and cardboard tubes for scooping and pouring

• Large plastic tub

With these activities, I always leave them out as an invitation to play. I don’t have any set intention with how the play should go and keep my own involvement to a minimum. My daughter, who was 3 when we did this activity,  spent some time trying to pick up the pumpkins with various tools and then used the utensils to scoop and pour rice onto the pumpkins.

To weave in a little maths, I asked my daughter which was the biggest and smallest pumpkin. Interestingly, she identified the green pumpkin as the biggest because it was in fact the widest. Another time I might extend this learning by weighing the pumpkins with her.

2. Pumpkin Process Art

Materials

• Carving pumpkin

• Non-toxic acrylics or washable paints

• Supply of painting tools. e.g. sponges, brushes and rollers

• Large tray

• Wipes / wet cloths

Process art is hugely beneficial because it truly allows little learners to explore the materials on offer. There is no set task or intended end result so the children can really get stuck in! Process art allows children to develop the creative side of their brains through the medium of sensory play.

If you're looking for something creative, painting a pumpkin (without carving it), is one of the simplest ways to do this.

3. Autumn Themed Mud Kitchen

This is one of the best pumpkin ideas for minimising mess - simply taking the pumpkins outside for play means that they will eventually get recycled into the soil. We recently had a wonderful surprise when we noticed pumpkins growing in our small vegetable patch - some of the seeds from our mud kitchen play had managed to grow with no help from us!

4. Pumpkin Spice Play Dough

Okay so we all know that pumpkin spice isn't actually made from pumpkins, but you can still use them in a café themed dramatic play activity during the Autumn months.

You can read all about how to make pumpkin spice playdough here and get ideas on a pumpkin themed cafe here.

5. Pumpkin Name Recognition Activity

You Will Need:

• Pumpkin

• Black marker pen

• Dot stickers or dot markers

What to do:

Write a selection of names on the pumpkin. As this was done at home, I opted to write all of the family names.

Write the letters of your child’s name onto the dot stickers for them to apply over the top of the name written on the pumpkin

For my daughter (aged 3.8 at the time)  this was pretty self explanatory as we’ve done plenty of name recognition activities before. Start by asking the question, ‘Can you find your name?’ or ‘What letter does your name start with?’

If you have older children, you could even try asking them to find the other names on the pumpkin too.

This activity lasted for approximately 10 minutes before she started randomly applying the stickers. This is all okay, it’s never a good idea to force an activity beyond their attention span. The good thing about this one is that we can repeat again another day as the stickers come off the pumpkin easily too.

6. Pollock Pumpkins

Materials

• IKEA Mala Paints

• Non-toxic Washable paints

• Paint palettes

• Paintbrushes

• Pumpkins

• Drop sheet

• Large Plastic tub

• Reusable wet wipe

What to do:

When it comes to process art, I tend to invite the children to paint by laying out all the materials for them to access. I try to interfere as little as possible myself, save to ensure that energies are being focused on the activity in hand, rather than painting the furniture, walls etc!

I put the pumpkins into a large plastic tub in order to contain them a little better, then the kids got down to painting. It’s always amazing to see how little direction they need in order to do this.

7. Gourd Geoboard

Supplies

• Pumpkin

• Drawing pins – these huge ones are from Flying Tiger

• Elastic bands

What to do:

I simply pushed the drawing pins in the pumpkin, aiming roughly for triangular patterns for her to explore. It was far easier than I expected to push the pins in and it kind of ended up looking a little alien like!

Z has done many geoboard type activities before, so needed no instruction on what to do but if your child has no idea and isn’t sure, try modelling a few first.

Key Benefits

• Early Math – by making shapes and lines.

• Fine motor skills – stretching the elastic bands over the pins

• The World Around us – making connections to the seasons and the produce available during autumn

• Language development – talking about colours, shapes and seasons

8. Pumpkin Squish Bag

Pumpkin ideas don't just have to be for the big kids - this is one babies can join in with too.

You will need:

• 1-2 strong resealable bags (we use the zip-lock variety)

• Permanent marker

• The flesh and seeds from a pumpkin

• Painters tape or masking tape

Method

Simply put the flesh and seeds from your pumpkin carving session in a ziplock bag for your baby or toddler to explore.

I drew a very quick pumpkin on the front of the bag with a permanent marker, but it isn’t strictly necessary for baby play.

If you’re worried about the bag breaking, you could try double bagging before taping it to the floor. If you don’t over-stuff the contents, you should avoid the bag ripping or tearing

9. Witches Brew

You will need:

• Rainbow rice – you can find out about the traditional method here or read on below for this neon Halloween version

• Googly eyes

• Pom- poms

• Halloween decorations

• Fine motor scoop

• Large tray (we used the tuff spot tray) or plastic tub

• Hollowed out pumpkin – try keeping the innards for other activities!

• Recyclables e.g. egg cartons

• Kitchen utensils e.g spoons, cake tins and muffin pans

Most of the time, we make rainbow rice with food colouring and vinegar, however, unless you are willing to pay a lot of money for specialist dyes, then you will struggle to make more elaborate colours. To achieve the neon brights shown above we used non-toxic acrylic paints instead.

1. Separate a 1kg bag of rice into sandwich bags (approx 200g in each),

2. Add a teaspoon of non-toxic acrylics into the bag. We chose neon colours which also doubles well for ‘coral reef’ sensory play!

3. Squish and shake the bags until the colour is well mixed, adding a little more paint if necessary

4. Once fully covered, spread out on a baking tray lined with baking paper and leave to dry overnight.

The most important thing to note with this method is to add the paint slowly. If you have too much paint, then it dries in clumps which are hard to break apart! If you have overdone the paint, then you can always add more rice to the mix and fix it that way.

The beautiful thing rainbow rice is the fact it can last YEARS (when stored correctly in a sealed Tupperware box) so if you ever worry about food wastage, then this is a great option to try.

To note, the black rice featured here is simply black rice that I’d bought from a health food store and forgotten about! It came in handy for this Halloween activity.

The actual ‘witches brew’ activity really couldn’t be simpler. Place all of the materials, along with your dry Halloween rice for your little one to explore. The benefits of this activity include:

• Fine motor skills: using kitchen utensils to work on pincer grip and hand strength

• Hand-eye coordination: to scoop and pour the rice into different containers

• Crossing the mid-line: using the tools to move the rice across the body

• Early Math: estimating / counting how many scoops it will take to fill the pumpkin – basic understanding of capacity

• Role play: pretending to be in the kitchen and make a potion.

10. Pumpkin Soup Scoop

One of the things I find really tricky about Halloween is buying a pumpkin but essentially wasting a lot of it in the name of decoration. I do really enjoy the decorative pumpkins so what I try to do is make the most with sensory play! This is one of the easiest pumpkin ideas on the list as you don't have to prep much.

Essentially, this is a really simple activity to try with your little ones. When hollowing out a pumpkin for decoration, let them help scoop the ‘innards’ out. Age depending, you might need to do most of the legwork in terms of loosening the flesh, but after that, it’s a lot of fun for the children to play pretend: making pumpkin pies of soup, for instance.

For an extra bit of fine motor work, you can even invite them to find all of the pumpkin seeds with their fingers or a fine motor tool so that they can be re-harvested for the following year. Now, I am no gardening expert, but I did find a useful article from Gardening Know How, which you can read here!

Need help with sensory play?

Sensory play is one of the modules available as part of the A Playful Year Membership. You can find out more here.