The force is with you – make some dough to push and pull

What you need 

• Shop-bought or home-made playdough. You can find our easy, no-cook recipe here.  
• A variety of tools, such as cutters, rollers, spoons, pegs, sticks, stones and stampers. 

What to try 

• When you have your dough ready, invite your toddler to play.  
• Encourage them to play gently, softly stroking or rolling the dough, and then changing to play with force – squashing or poking the dough. 
• Keep showing them how to use different amounts of force, and talking about what happens when you do.  
• Try exploring what happens when they gently press in a cutter compared to when they use their whole-body weight to push the cutter through the dough.  
• Encourage your toddler to use the tools in unconventional ways, such as hitting the dough with a rolling pin. When they do this, compare the depth of the indent the rolling pin left when hitting it softly and with more force.  
• Most of all, have fun with the dough – stretching, twisting, pulling and pinching it for a great sensory experience.