Occupational Therapy

Grow a Garden Pretend Play Dough

by Colleen Beck
April 24, 2014

We are loving all things Spring these days. One rainy morning, Baby Girl and I played with this play dough fine motor activity while Little Guy was away at preschool. She loves play dough and was very excited to Grow a Garden with a few extras thrown in there to make a fun flower garden.

Play dough is such a great way to work on fine motor skills and this garden activity hits the mark when it comes to strengthening those little muscles in the hands. Not only that, it’s totally fun and happy!

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I started by making a bunch of flowers. I used my circle paper punches and glued circles together to make flowers.

Baby Girl and I stuck them onto green paper clips. It was a great way to get started on the fine motor work in this activity. She was really focused on putting the paperclips onto the flowers.

Next, I pulled out the green play dough and we started planting flowers!

Rocks were needed for our flower garden, of course!

Fine Motor Activity for Kids

We tried clay and play dough for this activity. The clay was more resistive to press the paper clips into, and a better strengthening tool…but it seemed to stick more to the paper clips. Play dough worked better for us, and was just as good a fine motor strengthening work out.

Pressing the paper clips into the play dough is a great way to encourage a tripod grasp while strengthening the intrinsic muscles of the hands. The small muscles within the hand are so important for arch support and control in many fine motor tasks (coloring, zippering, buttoning…)

We’ve done another paper clips and play dough color match activity recently that hit on the fine motor work in this activity. Check it out…your little play dough fan will love it!