Playdough Play: Storytelling With Stampers

A few months ago I spotted a set of Melissa & Doug alphabet stampers on another blog and fell in love with them. The only problem is that I can't stand stampers with ink as they just end up getting mucky, stained and the ink goes everywhere! I decided to make some scented playdough for The Boy instead to stamp onto.

We'd also been sent a set of beautiful wooden stampers to celebrate the Very Hungry Caterpillar's 30th anniversary and I thought it would be a great opportunity for The Boy to try out story telling using the alphabet stamps as well.

Playdough Recipe

I used the fabulous cooked playdough recipe from Nurture Store's Playdough Recipe eBook, I highly recommend investing in it as there are so many great ideas in it for your child to enjoy.

• 2 cups of water
• 2 cups of plain flour
• 1 cup of salt
• 2tbsp of vegetable oil
• 1½tbsp of cream of tartar
• a few drops of mint essence
• green food colouring

1. Stir all the ingredients (apart from the essence) in a pan over a low heat until it binds together.
2. Remove from the heat and mix in the essence.
3. Leave to cool.

This playdough lasts for months and months if kept in an airtight container in the fridge.

The Boy rolled out the playdough and then picked one of his favourite pages from the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar to retell using the stampers. He was able to illustrate it as he was going along with the special picture stampers and after a while he decided to reinvent part of the story rather than sticking to Eric Carle's original text.

This is a great activity for children who've started on their reading and writing journey in the first few years of school; they can match the letters in the text with the alphabet stampers and then placing them in the right order and position on the playdough help develop their literacy skills. Plus it smells yummy and soothing as the peppermint essence is released as they play.

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