Play Dough Snake Maths
Play dough is an easy to make, inexpensive, modelling material. Using just a few ingredients your kids can make their own modelling dough and sculpt it into their own role-play toys, models and decorations.
Play dough is also a brilliant resource for using in more focused play activities that introduce, practice and develop maths concepts such as length and weight.
Check out Play Dough letter fun for our play dough recipe or print a free copy here
In this activity, we made play dough snakes and used them to introduce and develop the vocabulary related to length.
Be a maths detective
Ask questions that develop mathematical understanding and problem solving skills.
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Which snake is the longest/shortest? How do you know?
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Can you find a snake that is longer than/shorter than this piece of lego, paint brush etc.?
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Can you order the snakes from longest to shortest?
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How can we measure the length of this snake?
This question is a good way of;
- introducing measuring in non-standard units e.g. hands, pine cones
- introducing measuring in standard units e.g. centimetres
- providing opportunities to practice using a ruler to measure objects
Activity also develops:
Fine motor skills and Hand-eye co-ordination:
- Using play dough in tactile play and manipulating it by squeezing, squashing, rolling, cutting and flattening helps to strengthen finger and hand muscles and develop hand-eye co-ordination.
Language skills:
- Making play dough provides an opportunity for developing listening and instruction following skills. Vocabulary can also be developed as you introduce and use words like twist, roll, bend, pinch, squash, twist.
Creativity
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