Play Dough Cupcakes

These playdough cupcakes are one of our all-time favorite play dough activities! Occupational therapy providers know the incredible power of using play dough in therapy activities, so a fine motor activity like making pretend cupcakes with play dough is not only fun and engaging, it’s a fun dramatic play activity, too. The therapy providers love the benefits of motor skills, fine motor strength and coordination, too! Let’s make playdough baked goods!

Playdough Cupcakes

All you need is a clean, recycled cupcake container and a few containers of play dough to make a batch of the best fine motor tools around. We love using our crayon play dough recipe to make colorful batches of play dough, but you can use any type of store-bought or homemade playdough.

Best of all, with different colors of dough, you can mix and match the cupcakes while building skills. Color matching with play dough is a fun way for preschoolers and toddlers to learn colors and so much more.

Why make Playdough Cupcakes?

One of the benefits of playing with play dough is the creativity that the material inspires. Playing with playdough is a great way to inspire fine motor STEM while building strength in the hands:

• hand strength
• pinch strength
• grip strength
• wrist extension and stability

A stable and strong wrist is a powerful way to improve endurance in the hand during functional tasks.

How to Make Play Dough Cupcakes

The recipe to make play dough cupcakes is simple!

1. Pull palm-sized balls of playdough from the container- this is a great way to improve intrinsic hand strength.
2. Roll the ball of play dough between the palms.
3. Press the ball of play dough into the cupcake container.
4. Use small pieces of play dough to form imaginary decorations: sprinkles, icing, cherry, birthday candles, etc.

Using the fingertips of the hands to make these various small decorations really improves precision skills and dexterity in the hands.