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Christmas playdough recipes are all about the smells, and this gingerbread playdough is no exception. The fragrant recipe is easy to make and doesn’t require cooking or using boiling water. This makes it perfect for early learners to help make, and they can participate from start to finish.
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The Playdough Ingredients
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Gather the following for this homemade gingerbread-scented dough:
- 1 cup flour
- ½ cup salt
- 1 ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- ½ cup water
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How To Make Gingerbread Playdough
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Measure all of the above ingredients in a bowl. Invite early learners to help.
Mix the spicy mixture into a dough, and knead it thoroughly. The kneading helps strengthen little helpers’ hand and finger muscles.
Four spices in addition to salt are included in the dough. Allowing your little helpers to smell each one is a rich sensory opportunity.
The spices add color to this all-natural playdough, so no additional color is needed.
Another plus for this homemade playdough is that it can be used in a play invitation as soon as it has been made. It doesn’t need cool down time like a cooked playdough or recipe that uses boiling water would.
This recipe can easily be doubled or tripled to be enough for a group of children.
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Gingerbread Playdough Invitation
After helping make the playdough, little learners will love using it to mold and decorate gingerbread houses and people. Offer loose parts in a party tray for a spicy playdough invitation.
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The loose parts in the tray above are:
- gingerbread house and people cookie cutters
- gingerbread ornaments
- cut sparkly pipe cleaners and pompoms
- cut rick rack and straws
- buttons
- candy cane and gingerbread erasers
- bows
- bead garland
- wiggly eyes
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In this next tray, gingerbread house shapes, felt gingerbread people, beads, and rubber peppermint lollipops are included in the mix.
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Gingerbread Playdough Invitation Benefits
This heavenly-scented playdough invitation offers many benefits:
- Exercising creativity by decorating pretend cookies.
- Language development by using playdough cutouts to retell gingerbread stories or develop new ones.
- Gaining hand and finger strength by rolling, pressing, and kneading dough, and decorating it with loose parts.
- Role-playing working in a pretend bakery and baking cookies in a play oven.
Tip: A small box with a rack placed inside makes an easy DIY oven for pretend play.
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How To Store Gingerbread Playdough
This amazing gingerbread-scented dough is not sticky, rolls out just fine, and works well with cookie cutters.
To store it, wrap it in saran wrap and place it in an airtight container. Doing this will keep it nice and moist. To my delight, the playdough is even easier to work with when you pull it out for additional play.
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December Kindness Activities Printable Set
A December Kindness Calendar and Kindness Jar are two activities to teach empathy and kindness at home or in the classroom. Download this gorgeous pastel holiday printable set of kindness activities in my Skills N Smiles Etsy Shop for a low-low price. You’ll have the December kindness activities ready in minutes!
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More Playdough Recipes and Activities:
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Orange-scented Playdough Invitation
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Valentine’s Day Playdough Activities
St. Patrick’s Day Playdough Tray
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[Read more…] about Gingerbread Playdough
