What is your child’s favourite animal? My 7 year old son is mad about hedgehogs, so we have been enjoying lots of prickly fun at home. He has been online finding out lots of fun hedgehog facts to go into his “Animal Report: Hedgehogs” and I set up a simple Play dough Hedgehog activity for him to enjoy with his younger siblings after school.
How to make Play dough for your Hedgehog Activity
You will need:
- 2 cups of flour
- 1 cup of salt
- 1 tbs oil
- approx 1 cup of warm water
- Cocoa powder or chocolate sauce
We mixed together the ingredients needed for a batch of traditional no-bake play dough in our electric mixer. To give it a nice chocolate brown hedgehog colour, we added in a few squirts of chocolate sauce that was lurking at the back of my baking supplies. If you don’t have any chocolate sauce then add in a tablespoon of cocoa powder instead.
TIP – Gradually add in the water, as the amount you need can vary from batch to batch. Add it in until a nice stiff dough is formed and then either give it a further 3- 5 minutes in the mixer (using the dough hook) or knead by hand for at least 5 minutes. This will help to make your play dough super soft and pliable.
Invitation to make a Play Dough Hedgehog Activity
Once our play dough was ready to go, I loaded up our chip and dip tray with pasta pieces, small pieces of drinking straws, coloured craft sticks and goggly eyes.
The kids then had using the play dough and materials provided to make lots of cute hedgehogs (some cuter than others!).
As well as being a great activity for kids to sit down and do together it also has the following benefits:
- Rolling the play dough and picking up the materials to add on the hedgehog’s spikes are great activities to strengthen fine motor skills.
- Spark your child’s imagination and encourage them to tell you a story about their hedgehog as they play.
- Play dough is a perfect calm down activity for over tired kids in the afternoon or the run up to dinner time.
- Incorporate some number fun into your activity by asking your child to count the spikes on their hedgehog.
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Benefits of an Invitation to make activity
I love to give my children the freedom to explore different materials at their own pace and in their own way. This is great for their confidence, as well as their growing imaginations. I love to see what they can come up with themselves. They can come up with some crazy combinations and always have a story to tell as they are playing.
I set up Invitation to make activities for them on a regular basis. They are very easy to prepare and set up and they keep the kids busy for ages. They are especially good to set up for an after school activity or when your kids have a friend over for a play date.
For more ideas check out our Invitation to make…Incy Wincy Spider and our Invitation to make Messy Ice Cream Sundaes.
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