Play dough is fun for anytime, but I love to add it to our preschool explorations as a sensory- and tactile way to apply learning. Scroll to see our homemade play dough recipe, some river-themed learning activities, and how to build a river habitat with play dough.
Book: The River
This post contains affiliate links.
Reading and Learning About Rivers
Our preschool river-themed exploration was based on The River by Hanako Clulow. The illustrations in this book catch the eye as we followed the epic journey of a fish making her way downriver — through mountains, forests, and plains.
(Fun fact: This book has a cut-out hole in the center, and the fish is holographic, so it “swims” when you turn the pages!)
As we read, we made observations about the river and river animals. Storytime set the scene for our river play dough activity and helped the kids make connections between the text and their playtime.
After the story it was time to apply our learning by building a river habitat out of play dough!
WHY Play Dough is Good for Preschoolers
Though it can be a bit messy, I love encouraging play with dough because it’s FUN, keeps kids BUSY, and helps develop their fine motor skills. As kids move towards school-age they need to have strong muscles in their hands for writing, cutting, and other tasks. And playing with dough is a great way to build those muscles as they: roll, flatten, chop, cut, poke, squash, pinch, cut, pound, and manipulate!
Preparing to Build a River Habitat with Play Dough
To prepare for our river play dough sensory play, I gathered a tray of items that could work for a building a “river habitat.” Get creative! Most of these items came from outside or the dollar store.
We used: small pieces of (fake) plant, driftwood and small pieces of wood, glass gems, pebbles, and plastic river animals. 
A note on the river animals: Safari Ltd TOOB brand is our favorite choice for plastic animals, and the River TOOB animals are perfect for this river habitat activity! (Bonus tip . . . look for the TOOBs at Hobby Lobby and use a 40% off coupon!)
But First, Let’s Make the Play Dough
INGREDIENTS FOR HOMEMADE PLAY DOUGH:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup salt
- 4 teaspoons cream of tartar
- 2 cups lukewarm water
- 2 Tablespoons oil (vegetable, canola, coconut, etc.)
- Food coloring (we used green, blue, and red + green mixed = brown)
DIRECTIONS FOR HOMEMADE PLAY DOUGH:
Stir together flour, salt and cream of tartar in a large pot.
Next add the water and oil. If you’re only making one color, add in the the color now as well.
Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly. Continue stirring until the dough has thickened and begins to form into a ball.
Remove from heat and then place inside a gallon sized bag or onto wax paper. Allow to cool slightly and then knead until smooth.
If you’re adding colors after, divide the dough into balls (for how many colors you want) and then add the dough into the quart sized bags. Start with about 5-10 drops of color and add more to brighten it. Knead the dough, while inside the bag so it doesn’t stain your hands. Once it’s all mixed together you’re ready to PLAY!
Building a Play Dough River Habitat
Time to build and play! I gave the kids different colors of play dough and the tray of add-ins, and just let them go — creating and building “rivers” and playing with the animals.
Yes, the play dough colors got a bit mixed. But it was worth the fun they had during the sensory playtime!
And building a beaver dam on the river was one of the most popular creations! Too bad we only had one beaver. He got passed around quite a bit during our play dough playtime!
Book: The River
