Play Dough Recipe Without Cream of Tartar

playdough without cream of tartar

This play dough recipe without Cream of Tartar is one of our favorite playdough recipes because it omits cream of tartar, so the dough ingredients are commonly found in the home.

If you’ve been following this site over the years, you’ve seen many of our play dough recipes, one of them being this play dough recipe without cream of tartar. This easy play dough recipe is one that kids can help to make, and to use in occupational therapy interventions. Read more on how play dough benefits child development, and making the play dough is half of the fun!

Use this homemade play dough without cream of tartar to work on fine motor skills, executive function, cognitive development, and more.

Homemade Play Dough without cream of tartar

Homemade play dough is a childhood staple. When kids are part of the playdough making process, they are active in the kitchen and can incorporate many executive functioning tasks as well as other skill-building.

But most homemade play dough recipes include cream of tartar as an ingredient. However, purchasing this ingredient is just expensive, and there really aren’t many common uses for cream of tartar except in the playdough recipes.

So, we decided to do some experimentation and come up with a play dough recipe that omits cream of tartar.

Our recipe uses a common ingredent that is inexpensive, but also can be used in other kitchen recipes. So, when you purchase this ingredient, you can use it for other recipes as well, making the purchase a good buying decision.

So? What is our substitute for cream of tartar in homemade playdough?

Lemon juice!

Lemon juice makes a great substitute for cream of tartar in homemade play dough recipes because it’s an easy to find ingredient in most stores and you can use it in so many other recipes. Plus, the lemon juice adds pliability to the play dough just like cream of tartar does.

why is play dough good for child development

Over the years, we’ve used many ingredients to make play dough as a sensory tool. These are all wonderful ways to incorporate various sensory input through sensory play.

One of our most popular playdough recipes is our crayon play dough recipe. But other homemade dough recipes you’ll love include:

All of these various doughs offer sensory experiences through play, using different scents and textures. We’ve strived to create sensory tools through easily accessible and inexpensive materials, mainly using ingredients that are on hand in the kitchen.

When sensory and fine motor play is easily accessible, kids develop skills!

And, playdough is a great tool for developing math skills, too.

Making homemade play dough is a great occupational therapy activity for the clinic, school-based session, or a home recommendation to carryover skills in a family time activity.

Play dough and hand strength

Play dough is a fantastic easy and inexpensive tool to work on hand strength and pinch strength. We previously covered over 30 ways to improve fine motor skills with play dough.

These are great ways to use playdough can be used as a warm up activity or to incorporate palm strengthening exercises into therapy through play.

Another aspect of homemade playdough and fine motor skills includes the mixing and kneading aspects. Pouring, scooping, stirring, and kneading are all very functional tasks that

Whether you are developing fine motor skills, addressing cognitive skills like direction following, or incorporating sensory play into occupational therapy interventions, a simple homemade play dough is the way to go. Play dough has many benefits and there are many ways to use a simple dough recipe into therapy.

Playing with playdough improves fine motor skills such as:

  • Pinch strength
  • Eye-hand coordination
  • Intrinsic muscle strengthening
  • Separation of the sides of the hand
  • Pincer grasp
  • Opposition
  • Tripod grasp
  • Wrist extension
  • Bilateral coordination

All of this occurs through play!

Try these fine motor activities using play dough:

  1. This homemade play dough recipe is great for easy play dough activities like our play dough snakes.
  2. Match colored paper clips with play dough. This is a great pincer grasp, tripod grasp, and separation of the sides of the hand activity.
  3. Improve thumb opposition and address a thumb wrap pencil grasp using play dough and beads in this thumb IP joint activity.
  4. Explore all of the fine motor play dough activities.
ice cream play dough mat

Grab our free play dough mats available here on the website (or log into your Member’s Club dashboard to grab these in an instant download).

play dough and cognitive development

Play dough can be a great cognitive skill tool, too.

Play dough is a multi-step task. It involves following a recipe, following directions, planning, prioritization, impulse control, working memory, and other executive functioning skills.

Play dough is a great way to develop executive functioning skills while cooking.

Kids can work on safety skills while working in the kitchen to prepare this recipe. There is the heat of the play dough after cooking, and stove safety to consider.

Some users would benefit from using a stove to make the playdough and others may benefit by using an electric skillet in place of the stove.

So, let’s get to the recipe making with our play dough recipe (without cream of tartar)!

Playdough without cream of tartar

To make this playdough without cream of tartar, first gather your ingredients, cooking items, and get started. This is a great play dough recipe to make with kids!

You’ll need just a few ingredients in this playdough recipe withoug Cream of Tartar:

  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 and 1/2 cup salt
  • 3 and 1/4 cup water
  • 3 Tbsp oil
  • 3 Tbsp lemon juice
  • food coloring

How to make playdough without cream of tartar:

  1. Mix the flour and salt in a bowl, using a fork to stir. Add the water, oil, and lemon juice and stir until the dough pulls together. Move the wet playdough lump to a sauce pan and cook over low heat for 3-4 minutes until the dough forms. 

2. Plop the dough onto a clean surface and knead for a few minutes. 

3. Separate the play dough into portions and add food coloring.  Knead the dough to mix the food coloring. If you are making just one color of play dough, you can add the food coloring to the dough before cooking.

Many times, we want a variety of play dough colors, though, so mixing the food coloring in after the dough has been cooked is one way to get several colors of play dough.

4. Remember that the dough will be very hot to the touch after cooking. Use a dishtowel to mix the baggie so the color is absorbed throughout the dough.

5. Keep the homemade play dough in covered containers/sealed plastic bags.  Dough does not need to be refrigerated.  

Playdough with cream of tartar

If you do have a jar of cream of tartar, use this play dough recipe:

  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 and 1/2 cup salt
  • 3 and 1/4 cup water
  • 3 Tbsp oil
  • 2 Tbsp cream of tartar
  • food coloring

The same cooking process listed above can be used to make this dough recipe, using cream of tartar instead of lemon juice.

How to get Vivid Colors in Homemade PlayDough

Want the secret to really bold and vivid colors?  Use (Amazon affiliate link) Wilton’s gel food coloring.  I have a bunch of these that I use for my cookies, and Big Sister had fun picking out the colors she wanted to mix up.  

  A lot of times, you can find these color sets on clearance (plus add coupons) for a Great discount!

Little Guy had SO MUCH FUN playing with little straw pieces in the red play dough.   What a great

Fine Motor Activity for a three year old

This easy safe play dough recipe is great for toddlers and preschoolers, but also younger if closely watching young children.

We used the play dough recipe above, and some cut straw pieces to create a toddler-friendly play dough activity that builds fine motor skills.

Cut the straws into pieces. You can get preschoolers involved with this part of the activity for a scissor skills task.

 Then, show your toddler how to poke the straws into the play dough.

He played with this one for a long time…hiding the straw bits in the dough, poking circles, bending the bendable part of the straw… So much fun!   

Playdough Play Mats

Use this easy playdough recipe (without cream of tartar) with our playdough mats to add play dough as a handwriting warm-up and then incorporate handwriting skills!

Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.

Play Dough City

city play dough mat for kids

This fine motor play dough mat is a fun one. It’s a play dough city mat that allows kids to work on hand strength and fine motor skills using a city themed play dough mat. Playdough mats like this one can be used along with other city activities like books, travel, or discovering information about geography and our world. We’ve talked before about using play dough for fine motor skills development and this city play dough mat is a great way to do that!

This City Play Dough Mat is a supplement that can help with more skills than just adding to a city learning theme, all in a fun play dough activity! This free play dough mat boosts fine motor skills specifically hand strength, and the intrinsic muscles of the hands. Print off this city playdough mat and start playing and learning WHILE boosting those skills that kids need!

Kids can use this play dough city theme fine motor activity to increase hand strength for fine motor skills like handwriting and pencil grasp all with play dough activities kids love!

City Play Dough Mat

I love adding hands-on components to learning themes. It adds a special twist that really helps with recall when motor components are added. This city play dough mat is a great accompaniment to any community or geography theme.

Kids can fill in the circles in the city skyline while building the fine motor skills they need for tasks such as endurance with writing or coloring, pencil control when forming letters, functional pencil grasp, management of buttons/zippers/other clothing fasteners, opening and closing of food containers, and so many other fine motor tasks!

For the child who struggles with fine motor skills or has a fine motor delay, this city play dough mat can be a fun way to build those skills.

In fact, there are so many fine motor skills needed in school and in home learning environments whether it occurs in the classroom, virtual learning, or the homeschool dining room. Building fine motor skills can make an impactful difference in learning and functional tasks!

How to increase hand strength with a play dough mat

Play dough mats are a big hit with kids. They can come in any theme, making them fun for specific interests. This astronaut play dough mat is one of our favorites. The thing is, though that just the act of playing with play dough on a play dough mat is a really power tool in strengthening little hands!  

In fact, there are so many ways to use a play dough mat to strengthen the skills kids need for fine motor tasks.   One of the ways we have been focusing on here on The OT Toolbox with our recent play dough mat series is working the intrinsic muscles of the hands by rolling small balls of play dough in various sizes.

Using the finger tips and thumb of one hand at a time to roll a play dough ball is an intrinsic muscle workout that builds the muscles of the thenar eminence, hypothenar eminence, the interossei, and the lumbricals. All of these muscle groups make up the intrinsic hand muscles which are those located within the hands.  

The intrinsic muscles are those responsible for nice, defined arches of the hands, the ability to separate the two sides of the hand, and to have nice, bulky muscle tone in the mass that makes up the base of the thumb and the side of the pinkie finger. These muscle groups help with dexterity, endurance, coordination, and controlled manipulation of small items and all things fine motor!  

Free Play Dough Mat

Grab a copy of this free playdough mat by entering your email in the form below.

You will receive the printable play dough mat in your email where you can print it and use it over and over again in your therapy toolbox.

Want to check out the other play dough mats we’ve shared recently? They are all designed to promote strengthening of the intrinsics and hand strength in kids.

Free Astronaut Play Dough Mat

Free Space Play Dough Mat

Free Ice Cream Play Dough Mat

Free Bird Theme Play Dough Mat

Be sure to grab the city play dough mat and use it for increasing hand strength in fun ways!

Grab this FREE printable City Themed play dough mat to help kids strengthen the intrinsic muscles of the hands!

    We won’t send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time.
     
    Use this city theme play dough mat to work on hand strength and increasing the hand strength needed for fine motor skills.

    Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.

    Space Play Dough Mat

    space play dough mat

    If you are working on building intrinsic hand strength and the fine motor skills kids need to improve tasks such as maintaining a pencil grasp or coloring with endurance, than this space play dough mat is perfect for you.

    Kids can use play dough mats to strengthen their hands and develop essential skills needed for writing with a pencil, dexterity in fine motor tasks, and precision in fine motor coordination tasks. This free play dough mat has a space theme and you can print off the printable play dough mat and add it to your therapy toolbox.

    This space play dough mat is just one tool to use when looking for playdough activities for fine motor skills.

    Kids love play dough mats like this space worksheet. When they roll play dough to fit in the spaces on the printable sheets, they don’t always realize they are working on intrinsic hand strength or hand strengthening in general. Even better, this outer space play dough mat is a free printable playdough mat that will go perfectly with a space theme!

    This outer space play dough mat can be used to help kids increase their intrinsic hand strength and fine motor skills, using a space theme and a fun play dough activity that boosts the hand strengthening that kids need!


    Space Play Dough Mat

    Working on intrinsic hand strength is a task that doesn’t need to be difficult…with a simple play dough activity like this one, building hand strength is easy!   

    We’ve shared a few play dough strengthening activities before. There is a reason why: Kids NEED more hand strength. It’s evident in the increased pencil grasp issues that teachers, parents, and therapists are seeing every day!   

    Looking for more strengthening activities using play dough? Try this flower play dough activity.   


    Intrinsic Muscle Strengthening Activity

    The thing about this outer space play dough mat is that it works on a specific set of muscles in the hand. The intrinsic muscles are those within the hand that enable dexterity and endurance in fine motor tasks. They are the ones that allow the arches of the hand to be used in fine motor tasks like manipulating objects with in the hand.

    They are the muscles of the hand that contribute to separation of the sides of the hand and create the thenar and hypothenar eminences.    Specific exercises can strengthen these muscles and one of the biggest ones is rolling small balls of play dough with just the fingertips of the hand.   

    That’s why we’ve created a series of free play dough mats that encourage small balls of play dough of various sizes.   

    Space Activity

    Print off this free play dough mat and add it to your toolbox for a fun fine motor activity that kids will love.   

    You can enter your email into the form below and watch your email to find the printable outer space playdough mat.    After printing, you may want to cover it with a plastic or laminated surface that allows you to use the playdough mat over and over again. Some of our favorite tricks for this include: (Amazon affiliate links are included below.)

    Grab your free printable outer space play dough mat here and start working on that intrinsic hand strength!  

    Print off this free outer space play dough mat to help kids increase their hand strength and the intrinsic hand strength needed for fine motor tasks, all with a space theme!

    More play dough activities you will love:

    Play Dough Farm Activity | Play Dough Activity Color Match  | Play Dough Cupcakes      

    More Free Play Dough Mats  

    Here are more free play dough mats that you can print off and use to work on hand strength endurance, and fine motor skills:

    Free Ice Cream Play Dough Mat

    Free Bird Play Dough Mat

    Free Toys Play Dough Mat

    Free Astronaut Play Dough Mat

    Free City Skyline Play Dough Mat

    More Space Activities

    Pair this free outer space play dough mat with hands-on fine motor activities or virtual therapy activities for a themed therapy experience. Try these space activities that build skills:

    Free Space Play Dough Mat

    Want to add this space play dough mat to your therapy toolbox? Enter your email address into the form below to access.

    FREE Outer Space Play Dough Mat

      We won’t send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time.

      Know a kiddo that loves all things space, astronauts, and planets? The Outer Space Fine Motor Kit is your chance to develop fine motor strength, dexterity, and coordination skills.

      Addressing hand strength, endurance, and precision is out of this world fun! The Outer Space Fine Motor Kit includes:

      • Fine Motor Mazes
      • Fine Motor Ten Frames for motor activities
      • 1-20 Star Counting Cards
      • Bead Copying Strips
      • Space Alien Directed Drawing Sheets

      This fine motor kit includes 24 pages of printable resources. Included in this printable pack are:

      1. Two pages of color coded bead copying strips
      2. Two pages of blank bead copying strips
      3. Four pages of “draw and write” directed drawing activities with a space theme (Includes 3 styles of handwriting lines: highlighted lines, single rule, and double rule)
      4. Nine pages of fine motor mazes
      5. 1-20 Outer Space Counting Cards
      6. Four pages of fine motor ten frames activities

      These printable activities extend to work on a variety of other functional areas, too: handwriting skills, numbers, math, adding, subtracting, one-to-one correspondence, scissor skills, coloring, and more.

      Click HERE to grab the Outer Space Fine Motor Mini-Kit.

      Outer Space Fine Motor Kit

      Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.

      Peppermint Moon Dough Recipe

      Moon dough recipe is a peppermint dough recipe for Christmas sensory play.

      Have you ever played with moon sand, or moon dough? This moon dough recipe is an old post here on The OT Toolbox, and one that we loved looking back at. Have you made your own moon dough?  This stuff is seriously messy and majorly fun!  We made our Peppermint Moon Dough recipe a little different than the usual moon dough recipe that is out there.  This moon dough recipe is very soft and fun even for moms to play with!  It’s a great companion to our peppermint play dough recipe from years ago, too.

      Moon dough recipe is a peppermint dough recipe for Christmas sensory play.


      Moon Dough Recipe

      We started with what we had on hand.  When it comes to kid-related messy play and making these sensory play activities, we love to use something that otherwise would be thrown away.  Likewise, waste in these activities is not something we are big fans of.  So, when ever possible, we’ll re-use sensory play materials for other activities and save things like dyed pasta and rice for future sensory activities.  

      Note: This post contains affiliate links.  

      This moon dough recipe used something that would otherwise be headed to the trash bin…I had some scented lotion that I had for a while… I really didn’t care for the scent.  That and some corns starch were all that were needed to make the base of our moon dough!  

      Moon Dough Ingredients

      There are only four ingredients in this easy moon dough recipe. You could even omit the food coloring and make this a 3 ingredient moon dough recipe!


      To make the consistency of moon dough, use a 4:1 ratio of corn starch to lotion.  This will make a nice and fluffy, but moldable moon dough. 

      We added a few drops of peppermint extract and some red food coloring.  We used the gel type of food coloring, but only because that is all we had on hand.  I’m sure liquid food coloring would work just as well, although with the added liquid of scent and food coloring, a little extra corn starch might be needed. 

      Also to note when making your moon dough recipe is that different brands of lotion may effect this recipe.  As you mix the ingredients together, you many need to use more or less corn starch depending on the consistency.

      Moon dough recipe that kids can make for a Christmas sensory activity. Make this candy cane scented sensory dough with kids.

      Half of the moon dough, I kept plain white and the other half got the red food coloring for a very candy cane look.   Add a few little bowls and spoons for scooping, and a couple of Candy Cane cookie cutters, and we were ready to play!

      Peppermint dough for Christmas sensory play with an easy moon dough recipe.

      We all got busy scooping, fluffing, and mixing.  This was such a fun sensory play experience (for mom, too!)  The lotion made this dough very soft and with the peppermint scent, you could no longer smell the lotion’s scent.

      Peppermint moon dough recipe that kids can use to scoop and pour for fine motor work.

      Baby Girl (age 2) especially loved to scoop the moon dough.  She used the spoons and filled one cup after another.  And what great fine motor skills this was for her!  She liked to mix the red and the white colors together, dump it all out, and start scooping again!  Here is information on the developmental benefits of scooping and pouring with toddlers.

      We played right on the hard wood floor of our dining room for an easy clean up.  Any stray moon dough bits were easy to broom right up.  

      Moon dough activity for kids to scoop and pour for a holiday sensory activity.

      Little Guy’s favorite part was making the candy cane molds.  We packed the moon dough into the cookie cutters and then pulled it up.  The moon dough would hold it’s shape of the candy cane.  There were a bunch of little moon dough candy canes before we finished!

      Candy cane moon dough is a sensory material that smells so fresh for holiday family fun.

          The scent of peppermint candy canes filled the room!  We had so much fun playing with this moon dough!   

      Christmas sensory dough with a 4 ingredient moon dough recipe.

      When we were finished playing, I poured all of the moon dough into a storage bad and saved it to make a new play activity.  We’ll be using it again, soon!

      Have you made moon dough? How about candy cane scented moon dough? 

      Looking for more fun candy cane scented sensory play? 

      More Christmas sensory ideas

      You’ll find more Christmas sensory activities here, but be sure to try some of these sensory dough materials this holiday season.

      Christmas modified paper

      Christmas Modified Paper Pack

      Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.

      Play Dough Bird Activity

      free play dough mat bird theme

      If you are doing bird activities with kids, then this play dough bird activity is going to be a hit. It’s a free printable play dough mat that helps kids strengthen their hands for fine motor tasks. Grab this bird play dough mat to work on hand strength and improve fine motor skills with a bird theme! This would be a fun activity to use with colorful crayon play dough.


      Sometimes, adding a motor component to a leaning theme can be a strategy to help kids learn through play while boosting the fine motor skills they need for tasks like holding a pencil grasp, having endurance in coloring and writing, and improved dexterity in pencil control, which plays a big part in fluid and legible letter formation. We’ve previously covered the specific fine motor skills play dough activity can support.

      This bird theme play dough mat is a free printable that you can print off and use over and over again to work on hand strength such as intrinsic muscle strength kids need for these tasks and other fine motor skills.

      Print this free play dough mat to help kids with hand strength and fine motor skills like intrinsic hand strength and strengthening of the intrinsics of the hands to help with fine motor skills like handwriting and coloring, all using a bird theme playdough mat!


      Play Dough BirdS

      You may have seen some of the other play dough mats we’ve shared recently. Our free printable play mats included (so far): an Astronaut Play Dough Mat, Outer Space Play Dough Mat, and an Ice Cream Play Dough Mat. (Links to these free play dough mats are at the bottom of this blog post.)

      You may want to grab the original intrinsic muscle hand strengthening play dough mat that we’ve had on the site for some time. It’s a basic sheet of circles in various sizes, but the exercise is perfect for really working those intrinsic muscles!


      The play dough bird mat shown here is a fun and easy way to help kids develop hand strength and endurance. Kids can roll small balls of play dough using the tips of their fingers and match the different size play dough balls to the different birds on the printable playdough mat.

      Scroll to the bottom of this post to access this freebie.


      Why Use a Play Dough Mat for Hand Strengthening?

      Play dough mats are a powerful tool in strengthening fine motor skills and hand strength. However, the ones that we’ve created so far really boost those intrinsic muscles of the hand.   

      The intrinsic muscles are those muscles whose origin and insertion are within the hand.  That is, they are anchored to the bones in the hand and move the joints of the hand in delicate and precise ways. 

      These include the thenar muscles, the hypothenar muscles, the interossei, and the lumbricals.   

      Using play dough to strengthen the hand muscles is as simple as rolling small balls of various sizes with just the tips of the fingers and the thumb. It’s important to use just one hand when doing this activity to really work those intrinsics.   


      Play Dough Bird Activity for Kids

      Enter your email below to grab your printable play dough mat and play along with a bird theme while getting in a hand workout! Kids can count the birds on the mat, use a specific color of playdough that matches the colors of the birds, or many other activities. They should fill each circle with a small ball of play dough that they’ve rolled with their fingers. There are various sizes on the playdough mat to challenge precision and dexterity.  

      Try some of these ideas with your bird play dough mat: 

      • Match a different color play dough to the different colored birds
      • Fill all of the blue birds, then all of the yellow birds…
      • Write numbers in the circles in random order. They can then scan across the play dough mat to challenge visual perceptual skills.
      • Use the right hand to roll play dough balls for the circles on the left side of the playdough mat and use the left hand to roll play dough balls for the circles on the right side of the playdough mat.
      • There are so many ways to play and use this play dough mat for learning and play WHILE strengthening fine motor skills!

      Want to strengthen the muscles in the hand to improve pencil grasp, scissor use, coloring, or fine motor coordination and endurance?

      Grab this FREE printable Bird themed play dough mat to help kids strengthen the intrinsic muscles of the hands! You’ll also receive weekly emails that are loaded with resources and tools promoting the healthy development of kids.  

      Enter your email address and click the button below to get your free printable play dough mat to improve hand strengthening: 

      Grab this FREE printable Birds themed play dough mat to help kids strengthen the intrinsic muscles of the hands!

        We won’t send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time.

        Looking for more play dough activities that kids can use to boost the fine motor skills they need for all sorts of tasks? 


        More play dough activities:

         

         
         
         
        Kids will love playing with this play dough mat with a bird theme while using playdough activities to help increase fine motor strength like hand strength of the intrinsic muscles of the hands. It's a great activity to work on fine motor skills with a free bird play dough mat!
         

        Toy Theme Play Dough Mat

        toy theme play dough mat

        This toy theme play dough mat may be just the incentive kids need to build hand strength! Kids can improve hand strength in fun ways when play dough is added to the mix. We’ve been sharing a variety of free play dough mats based on several different themes. These are free printable playdough mats that kids can use to increase hand strength, specially strength of the intrinsic muscles of the hands.

        The fact is that using a printable mat in play dough activities for fine motor skills is fun, innovative, and creative. Kids love them!

        Use this free printable toy theme play dough mat to boost fine motor skills and hand strength that kids need for fine motor tasks, perfect for those kids that love play dough activities!


        Toy Theme PlayDough Mat

        Kids love toys, right? I haven’t met a child who isn’t captivated by a new toy. This toy theme play dough mat builds on the fundamental “job” that kids have…play!


        You can print off this printable play dough mat that focuses on toys and an toy theme and use it to work on fine motor skills and the intrinsic muscle strengthening that kids need to complete many functional tasks…and even play!

        Toy Themed Play Dough Mat for Fine Motor Skills

        Show your child how to use the finger tips and thumb of one hand to roll a small ball of play dough. By using just one hand, they can develop and define the arches of the hand, while strengthening the other muscles of the intrinsic muscle groups at the same time.   

        Then, ask the child to place and press the play dough on the circles on the toy play dough mat. They may need to pull off a bit of dough to make the play dough ball fit into the circles. This is a great activity for boosting visual perceptual skills too!  

        Looking for more ways to use play dough to increase fine motor skills? Add these play dough activities to your therapy toolbox!

        Gold, Silver, & Bronze Metallic Crayon Play Dough

        Patriotic Crayon Salt Dough Recipe

        Crayon Salt Dough Recipe

        Crayon Floam Dough Recipe

        Crayon Shaving Art

        Shades of Red Crayon Play Dough

        Harold and the Purple Crayon Play Dough

        Here are more free play dough mats:

        Free Ice Cream Play Dough Mat

        Free Bird Play Dough Mat

        Free Toys Play Dough Mat

        Free Astronaut Play Dough Mat

        Free City Skyline Play Dough Mat

        Enter your email in the form below and access your free printable play dough mat. Then, pull out the play dough!   

        Grab this FREE printable Toy themed play dough mat to help kids strengthen the intrinsic muscles of the hands!

          We won’t send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time.
           
           
          Kids will love this free playdough mat with a toy theme while building the hand strength and fine motor skills.
           

          Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.

          Thank You City Play Dough Mat

          Thank you for grabbing our City Play Dough Mat! You should have an email in your inbox right now with a link to access the file. 

          Did you find this page accidentally and want to get your free copy of our city themed playdough mat? Go to our city play dough mat page to get your free city play dough mat!

          The email also includes some instructions and the “why” behind play dough mats like this one. There is a lot of development going on when a little one uses a play dough mat like the one you just accessed! Scroll below to to find some additional instructions to best use the play dough mat to increase hand strength of the intrinsic muscles of the hands.


          General Housekeeping Information on your Free Printable:


          If you do not see the email right away, check back within 30 minutes. Be sure to check your SPAM folder.  Other subscribers using an email hosted on a school system’s email provider may have security restrictions in place that block the email. If you still don’t see the email, shoot me a message at contact@www.theottoolbox.com and I will send the file to you directly.

          If you arrived here by accident and would like to receive a free city themed play dough mat to improve hand strength, check out this post that shares information on the City Themed Play Dough Mat.

          Play Dough Mats Can Be Used to Improve Fine Motor Skills

          Kids love play dough! This city play dough mat is a fun way to build so many small muscles of the hand with this activity! Follow the directions below to maximize intrinsic muscle strengthening. Start with play dough of any kind and the printable playdough mat.

          Rolling play dough within one hand promotes development of a variety of areas: 

          Strengthens the arches of the hands, helps awareness and coordination in separation of the two sides of the hand

          Promotes finger isolation for improved control and dexterity

          Encourages dexterity and coordination of the thumb and index finger which are important in pencil grasp

          Strengthens the intrinsic muscles for improved endurance in fine motor tasks such as maintaining hold on a pencil, manipulating clothing fasteners, managing and using scissors, coloring, and many other tasks.


          Looking for more play dough activities to boost fine motor strengthening?


          Play Dough Farm Activity | Play Dough Activity Color Match  | Play Dough Cupcakes

          Toy Theme Play Dough Mat Thank You

          Thank you for grabbing our Toy Themed Play Dough Mat! You should have an email in your inbox right now with a link to access the file. 

          Did you find this page accidentally and want to get your free copy of our city themed playdough mat? Go to our toy play dough mat page to get your free toy theme play dough mat!

          The email also includes some instructions and the “why” behind play dough mats like this one. There is a lot of development going on when a little one uses a play dough mat like the one you just accessed! Scroll below to to find some additional instructions to best use the play dough mat to increase hand strength of the intrinsic muscles of the hands.




          You will love this Free Play Dough Mat with a Toy Theme to build fine motor skills!





          How to use your free printable play dough mat and General Housekeeping Information on your Free Printable:


          If you do not see the email right away, check back within 30 minutes. Be sure to check your SPAM folder.  Other subscribers using an email hosted on a school system’s email provider may have security restrictions in place that block the email. If you still don’t see the email, shoot me a message at contact@www.theottoolbox.com and I will send the file to you directly.

          If you arrived here by accident and would like to receive a free toy themed play dough mat to improve hand strength, check out this post that shares information on the Toy Themed Play Dough Mat.




          You are going to build so many small muscles of the hand with this activity!

          1. To use this play dough mat, you will first want to cover it with a plastic surface so you can use it over and over again. Some ideas to do this include (Amazon affiliate links are included below):


          • Cover it with clear contact paper. Click the link to purchase a large roll of clear contact paper.
          • Slide the play dough mat into a clear plastic page protector sleeve. Add it to a folder workbook or binder booklet of play dough mats for quiet time or a busy bag-type of activity.
          • Use a laminator to cover the play dough mat with a laminated surface that can be used over and over again. This is a great price on a quick laminator and laminating pouches.
          • Use pocket sleeves to create a quiet time or fine motor center activity.


          2. Once the play dough mat is covered, provide the child with play dough, clay, foam dough, or other moldable material.



          3. Ask the child to roll small balls of play dough using just the fingers and thumb of one hand. They should use their dominant hand to roll small balls of play dough with the tips of the fingers and thumb. This is an AWESOME hand strengthening exercise for kids. 

          4. Ask the child or children to roll various sizes of play dough so the balls of dough fit into the various circle sizes on the play dough mat. 

          Play Dough Mats Can Be Used to Improve Fine Motor Skills

          Kids love play dough! This toy play dough mat is a fun way to build so many small muscles of the hand with this activity! Follow the directions below to maximize intrinsic muscle strengthening. Start with play dough of any kind and the printable playdough mat.

          Rolling play dough within one hand promotes development of a variety of areas: 

          Strengthens the arches of the hands, helps awareness and coordination in separation of the two sides of the hand

          Promotes finger isolation for improved control and dexterity

          Encourages dexterity and coordination of the thumb and index finger which are important in pencil grasp

          Strengthens the intrinsic muscles for improved endurance in fine motor tasks such as maintaining hold on a pencil, manipulating clothing fasteners, managing and using scissors, coloring, and many other tasks.


          Looking for more play dough activities to boost fine motor strengthening? Use these play dough recipes with your toy theme printable play dough mat:

          Outer Space Printable Thank You

          Thank you for grabbing the Outer Space Play Dough Mat! You should have an email in your inbox right now with a link to access the file. 

          Did you find this page accidentally and want to know what the fuss is about? Go to our outer space play dough mat page to get your free outer space play dough mat!


          The email also includes some instructions and the “why” behind play dough mats like this one. There is a lot of development going on when a little one uses a play dough mat like the one you just accessed! Scroll below to to find some additional usage instructions.




          Outer space play dough mat for fine motor strengthening




          How to use your Outer Space Play Dough Mat and other Housekeeping Information:



          If you do not see the email right away, check back within 30 minutes. Be sure to check your SPAM folder.  Other subscribers using an email hosted on a school system’s email provider may have security restrictions in place that block the email. If you still don’t see the email, shoot me a message at contact@www.theottoolbox.com and I will send the file to you directly.

          If you arrived here by accident and would like to receive a free outer space themed play dough mat to improve hand strength, check out this post that shares information on the Outer Space Play Dough Mat.

          How to use Improve Intrinsic Hand Strength with a Play Dough Mat

          You are going to build so many small muscles of the hand with this activity!

          1. To use this play dough mat, you will first want to cover it with a plastic surface so you can use it over and over again. Some ideas to do this include (Amazon affiliate links are included below):


          • Cover it with clear contact paper. Click the link to purchase a large roll of clear contact paper.
          • Slide the play dough mat into a clear plastic page protector sleeve. Add it to a folder workbook or binder booklet of play dough mats for quiet time or a busy bag-type of activity.
          • Use a laminator to cover the play dough mat with a laminated surface that can be used over and over again. This is a great price on a quick laminator and laminating pouches.
          • Use pocket sleeves to create a quiet time or fine motor center activity.



          2. Once the play dough mat is covered, provide the child with play dough, clay, foam dough, or other moldable material.



          3. Ask the child to roll small balls of play dough using just the fingers and thumb of one hand. They should use their dominant hand to roll small balls of play dough with the tips of the fingers and thumb. This is an AWESOME hand strengthening exercise for kids. 

          4. Ask the child or children to roll various sizes of play dough so the balls of dough fit into the various circle sizes on the play dough mat. 


          Rolling play dough within one hand promotes development of a variety of areas: 

          • Strengthens the arches of the hands, helps awareness and coordination in separation of the two sides of the hand.
          • Promotes finger isolation for improved control and dexterity
          • Encourages dexterity and coordination of the thumb and index finger which are important in pencil grasp
          • Strengthens the intrinsic muscles for improved endurance in fine motor tasks such as maintaining hold on a pencil, manipulating clothing fasteners, managing and using scissors, coloring, and many other tasks.



          Be sure to check out some of these fun play dough activities for more fine motor strengthening:


          Play Dough Farm Activity | Play Dough Activity Color Match  | Play Dough Cupcakes