We are taking a short break from the Math series with a fun activity we did over the holidays.

Make beautiful prints on playdough with power tools. Isn’t it cool a drill bit can make sun prints and a nail can make flower prints? Flower Power takes a whole new meaning now.

With my toddler getting really upset at how easily her big sister can use a hammer and a nail in her pretend tool set, I set up this easy activity for her. Put a hunk of play dough in front of her and gave her a hammer to drive the nail through and generally have her use her tools on the play dough. It turned into a really fantastic activity for both my girls. Once I laid out the tools, immediately they both went for the hammer and there was a skirmish right there. While baby A used the hammer, Big A went for the drill and later used the bit to make prints.

 Using the power drill was the best! Hold a circular piece of playdough and just drill through. Our power drill was low on battery and so it took a while to drill through and THAT made it more fun.

When you drill through a hunk of play dough, the drill bit ends ends up with a nail shaped play dough piece.

Printing with saw and the screw driver.

The “nails” which came with the pretend tool set made some amazing flower-like prints.

The drill bit printing gave us a perfect sun print. With that as a start we made a series of power tool prints and there were giggles all around.

[highlight bg=”#DDFF99″ color=”#000000″]Both the kids had a great time while developing their fine motor skills and their hand-eye co-ordination. You can easily turn this into a math activity by observing patterns, counting prints, making prints in a pattern.[/highlight]

Pre Schooler

 Toddler busy at work!

We did the printing with different colors and tools combination over and over again until they actually said “I’m done with playdough”

Clean up is so easy. The play dough does get stuck inside the “nails” and the ridges of the drill bit. I just used a tooth pick to gently push out the piece. Easy! Kids will have a kick out of cleaning this one. Great for hand-eye co-ordination. But make sure you don’t let the play dough dry.

Here are the playdough all nice and printed

• My Nearest and Dearest also had fantastic fun with tools and play dough.  
• Other ways we have had fun with playdough 
•  We love Model Magic too. 
•  DIY play food  

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