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Play Dough Bakery for Fine Motor Play

By Karen Cox | Affiliate Disclosure | Filed Under: Play Dough Activities

In my classroom, we have a Play Dough Bakery that stays in our classroom all year. This is a creative and fun way for kids to practice building the fine motor muscles they need for gripping a pencil and writing.

Play Dough Bakery for Fine Motor Fun

Children love to make play dough food and “serve” it to their teachers and friends.

Play Dough Bakery: Set up a center for creative fine motor play

Sometimes they create their own pretend-play restaurants, ice cream shops, bakeries, and pizza parlors using the Play Dough Bakery. I’ve even seen them write receipts for things they “sell”.

Materials to add to your play dough bakery

Make Your Own Play Dough Bakery

To make your own Play Dough Bakery, collect spoons, plastic knives or metal knives that are not serrated or sharp, cookie cutters, muffin tins, mini bread loaf pans, small cookie sheets, spatulas, rolling pins, pots and pans.

Many of these can be picked up at yard sales, second hand stores, or discount stores. This toaster rack came from an old, broken toaster and makes a great grill or oven rack for pretend play. A friend donated the George Foreman play dough grill.

Use mini baking and cooking tools to create this center

These plates and bowls came from a dollar store. The ice cream scoop, which also came from a dollar store, is very useful for scooping play dough out of play dough containers.

plastic plates, bowls, ice cream scoops are great tools for play dough

I found the birthday candles on a recent trip to the Dollar Tree. These lasted a while, but if kids are prone to breaking the candles, you can use pegs from a pegboard set. Or buy a dowel rod from a craft store and cut it with a small saw. Dowel rods are inexpensive and come in a variety of sizes. You can also cut a thicker dowel rod to use as rolling pins. Just be sure to sand the ends.

Add birthday candles for kids to make play dough cakes

Play Dough Resources

Check out these Play Dough Recipes to make your own. Find more Ideas for Playing with Play Dough here.

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17 Comments Tagged With: Pre-K, Preschool

About Karen Cox

Karen is the founder of PreKinders.com. She also works as a full-time Pre-K teacher in Georgia. Read more...

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. jeannine says

    April 27, 2010 at 12:06 pm

    My three-year-old loves play dough! We “bake” every day!

    Reply
  2. Scott says

    April 27, 2010 at 1:58 pm

    Some great ideas. I will pull things out for a bakery but haven’t left them out all the time. And I haven’t used candles to supplement play. Maybe a trip to the dollar store is in order.

    Reply
  3. Jen says

    April 27, 2010 at 5:25 pm

    Once year I made a math game for my P-K-ers using playdough and birthday candles. The children had to take a card with a number on it and add as many candles as the card said to their “birthday cake.”

    I loved the idea! The kids had a great time learning through play. The director… thought adding candles to the activity was a safety concern and asked that we take the candles away! No fair!!

    Have fun!

    Reply
  4. Linda Taylor says

    April 27, 2010 at 6:48 pm

    I do a similar thing (even have the Foreman grill) but I have found that colorful golf tees work well for candles- they don’t bread as easily )

    Reply
  5. Karen says

    April 27, 2010 at 8:05 pm

    Thanks for the comments, everyone!

    Jen, I don’t understand the safety concern, since of course they aren’t lit. Sorry you couldn’t use them.

    Reply
  6. Rene Woodlief says

    April 27, 2010 at 8:16 pm

    I have made “dough” using lots of flour, a little water and cinnamon powder. The children really feel like they are baking something. I have used the candles but found they break easily also. I like the idea of using the colorful golf tees!

    Reply
  7. Beth says

    April 27, 2010 at 9:39 pm

    We use old plastic Easter eggs so we you open them you can find play dough yellow yokes and whites inside…Also empty food boxes and jars we try to recreate what the food that came out of them look like in play dough.

    Reply
  8. Karen says

    April 27, 2010 at 9:46 pm

    Love the cinnamon dough idea, Rene!

    Beth, I’ve done Easter eggs with play dough, too– fun! Love the idea for empty food boxes & jars– I hadn’t thought of that!

    Reply
  9. Sue Hills says

    April 28, 2010 at 5:29 pm

    I love this idea. Just today someone was asking for a “pan” to bake the playdough cookie she had just cut out. We have the cookie cutters, rolling pins, etc. but not the pans. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
  10. Amy Johnson says

    April 28, 2010 at 8:52 pm

    I also have added foam shapes and small silk flowers for cake decorating I love this idea. We bring it out every time we have a birthday. 🙂 .

    Reply
  11. tril says

    April 28, 2010 at 8:53 pm

    my kids like using a white enamel pot, turned upside down for a cake. they use magnetic letters to spell things on the cake and I put candles in a little bit of playdough and let it dry to make a “base” so the candles will stand up for them…they love it!

    Reply
    • Karen says

      May 2, 2010 at 12:13 pm

      Thanks for sharing!

      Reply
  12. Regina says

    May 18, 2010 at 10:47 am

    Karen, where did you get the item that the little boy is holding in the first photo? It looks like you close the lid to press the play dough into the food shapes. I haven’t seen anything like it, and it looks fun!

    Reply
  13. Karen says

    May 18, 2010 at 9:14 pm

    Regina,
    That is a play dough George Forman grill. A friend of mine donated it to our class when her child came to Pre-K.

    Reply
  14. jeannine says

    June 3, 2010 at 3:14 pm

    I couldn’t help but think of you and your play-doh bakery when my children made sea creatures with play-doh and the items they found on the beach. Love engaged, creative learning that comes from the children!
    http://waddleeahchaa.com/2010/05/26/play-doh-sea-creatures-learning-at-its-finest/

    My daughter was baking away this morning with her play-doh!

    Reply
  15. Kathy says

    August 28, 2010 at 8:40 pm

    Karen, where do you set up the playdough bakery in your room?

    Reply
    • Karen says

      August 28, 2010 at 8:45 pm

      Our play dough things are set up in the art center.

      Reply

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Glad you're here! You'll find hands-on learning activities, themes, and printables for Pre-K, Preschool, and Kindergarten kids. I'm Karen Cox, a Pre-K teacher in Georgia. I have taught 4-5 year olds for 20+ years! Read More…

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