Playdough Activity Promoting Fine Motor Skill Development

Provide your students with white playdough and metal pie pans.  Ask them to make a pie crust!! A pretend pie crust is a great fine motor skill development activity. 

My boys exercising their fine motor skills.

The kids love this activity especially if you incorporate it into your pretend play center or use it as an extension after reading I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie.  

Instructor's Insight: It can also be a great cooperative play if you partner up and have children work together to use their fine motor skills to spread the crust. 

Teacher's Tip:  You can use mini pie pans for younger students or students with less fine motor strength.  That way they get to participate and be successful at the same activity.  You can also do it with foil disposable pie pans for an extra challenge as they are more flimsy and need more motor control to complete the task. 

Another fun playdough activity for kids during the Thanksgiving holiday is to add various cooking utensils.  Over the years, I have collected several types of  potato mashers. The kids love to push playdough down with them to make different types of prints.  

E.J. putting my kitchen utensils to good use.