Preschoolers will love this festive touch to traditional play dough. The wonderful gingerbread scent of this play dough adds an additional dimension to this sensory play activity and helps preschoolers to celebrate the holiday season.

What You Need

• 1 cup of flour
• 1/2 cup of salt
• 2 tsp. Cream of tartar
• 1 cup of water
• 1 tsp vegetable oil
• cinnamon, allspice, ginger, nutmeg, etc.

Mix flour, salt, and cream of tartar together. Blend the mixture well. In a separate bowl, mix the spices together until you get the scent and color you want. When you are happy with the scent and color of your spice mixture add it to the dry ingredients. In a small bowl mix the water and oil together. Add the water and oil mixture to the dry ingredients and mix well. Cook the mixture in a pot for 2-3 minutes, stirring often. The play dough will start to pull away from the sides and form clumps. Remove the dough from the pot and allow it to cool. Knead the play dough until it becomes a smooth consistency.

Give each preschooler a piece of gingerbread play dough to experiment with. You may want to provide preschool sized rolling pins, cookie cutters, or dough stamps to create an exciting sensory experience for preschoolers.

Print large bubble letters on pieces of cardstock. Have preschoolers form play dough snakes and then lay the pieces out on top of the letters to create three dimensional play dough alphabet letters.

Preschool Pretend Play

Have preschoolers pretend to make some holiday treats with their gingerbread play dough. Provide preschool sized rolling pins, plastic knives to cut the dough, and a metal pie plate. Have preschoolers pretend to make holiday cookies or pumpkin pie.

Make Use of Leftover Dough

Use leftover gingerbread play dough as a base for a Pine Cone Christmas Tree

Pine Cone Christmas Tree
Preschoolers will love making these open ended pine cone Christmas trees. Let preschoolers use their imagination and decorate their Christmas trees using a variety of leftover sequins, beads, and other craft supplies.

Additional Play Dough Activities

(Taken From – Toddler Sensory Play: Homemade Play Dough for Your Toddler)

Sand – Mix sand into your homemade play dough to give your dough a grainy texture. You can adjust the amount of sand that you add to your play dough to give your toddler a variety of textures.

Cloves – Whole cloves can be added to play dough to create an uneven texture and add lumps to the dough. Toddlers will have a different play experience using the uneven dough and the scent of the cloves adds another dimension to their play.

Be Creative – Nearly any material can be mixed in to your homemade dough to alter the play experience for your toddler. Be aware that if you use an add in that your toddler is used to eating it may encourage them to eat the dough but one taste of the heavy salt in the dough and they are not likely to try it again.