Play dough is a simple educational tool that promotes learning through hands-on playing. However, it is not very popular with teenagers and adults. In this post, I will describe five activities that you can implement with the grown-ups.
Many of these tasks were originally used in Language or Arts classes, but you can definitely adapt them in any subject classroom with reading assignments or vocabulary that needs to be learnt.
Playdoh Vocabulary Matching game
The teacher chooses 10 words or concepts, she/he would like his/her students to learn. From one of those words, participants can choose to write a sentence or create a sculpture that best reflects its meaning. Students write their words and definitions or sentences on paper and play a “matching game” with other students from the class, matching the correct word to the sculpture. It is a great formative assessment or review game.
Timeline PlayDoh
This activity will need a handout for the process. Have students create a timeline by placing a small playdoh sculpture in each of the boxes on the handout. Ask students to explain their sculpture to the class in a reflective activity.
Reconstruction:
Students can reconstruct a history location or a scientific element using play dough. They can use clues from the text they are reading at that moment to make the construction. Additionally, they can play a guessing game, having the others guess what time period, or scientific element they tried to make.
Models
This activity works for every subject in high-school. In science classes, students can create models of cells. In History, students can create models of inventions or historical objects. In Language, students can reproduce symbols. In math, they can create models of a story problem, graphs, math symbols or fractions.
Sculptionary Review game
Based on the game Pictionary, make slips of paper with vocabulary or terminology on them. Place students in teams and have them draw the term. They have one minute (use a sand clock to make the game even funnier) to create that sculpture and see if the other students on their team can guess.
All in all, it seems to me that playdoh is a worthy teaching resource to make students look at things differently than the way they usually do.
