Playdough Bakery
Chocolate and Strawberry Playdough Bakery
With the snowy weather we have been having I’ve mixed up a couple of batches of my favourite playdough recipe – chocolate playdough and strawberry playdough great for some valentines day role-play with a bakery.
Setting up the children with our play kitchen, some pots and pans and play cooking equipment, cookie cutters, recipe books, cupcake cases and rolling pin they set about playing bakeries one morning.
I have to say that this was the longest that the two of them have ever played together, there was some play together i.e. J holding something whilst T mixed or helping each other carry things backwards and forwards from their kitchen table to the oven, but also lots of side by side play.
Adding in real cook books – my afternoon tea and cookies cook books were chosen as they although quite thick books have wonderful big pictures of cakes and cookies that are perfect for the bakery to make.
I also checked through our Junk Modeling box of stuff and found some chocolate trays and boxes that we had saved from Christmas that also got brought into the play.
If you haven’t made flavoured playdoughs before I recommend the chocolate playdough as a great starting point the smell is delicious and it’s a great way to explore the sense with children here some other great ideas for exploring the sense of smell with playdough from Science Sparks.
Setting up play like this with all the props and letting them explore, play and pretend is great free play for toddlers and preschoolers and believe me when I say it’s something that I’m going to explore more and more as I can get so much done whilst the two of them play together.
This play was inspired by our Valentines Cupcakes. If you are looking for a variation on the Playdough Bakery then The Imagination Tree has a playdough bakery with a wholemeal playdough recipe for some more fun.