Earth Day Crafts | Play Doh Kit For Kids

This Earth Day play doh kit is so fun! It’s easy to make and will have your preschooler entertained for a while. Pair the activity with some Earth Day books for a fun a morning.

If you haven’t seen the trend of playdough kits sweeping Etsy and Parenting Facebook groups, let me tell you all about it. These kits are also known as a type of “sensory bins” and are great for young children’s development.

I am in no way an expert on sensory enrichment or the science behind these, but here are a few blogs you can follow for that content. My friend who is an SLP to preschoolers recommended these accounts!

• Bringing Up Babe
• Speech and Language Mama
• Rachel Madel SLP

The gist of these “kits” or “invitations” (my new favorite mom word) is to pick a theme then grab some playdough and some corresponding items to play in the dough!

Now there are some incredible creators of these kits and parents who make their own playdough. That’s cool, but we use Play Doh because I’m really just a semi-homemade Pinterest mama.

We have SO many containers of Play Doh that it can be overwhelming to just “play” with it. These sensory kits are seriously the BEST solution to simplify the playtime. Plus, they are great to use on our new FLISAT table (IYKYK).

What’s in this Earth Day Play Doh Kit?

I put together a whole outline of Earth Day activities and this was just one of them! Some of those activities were more “land-centered” but this one was all about the ocean! Here is everything you need for our play doh kit.

• Play Doh. Well, that’s one obvious, huh? We used blue and white for this kit since we were representing the ocean.
• Straws, Pipe Cleaners, Popsicle Sticks. I usually cut the straws and pipe cleaners in half so they are shorter.
• Glass Marbles. Olivia loves to use these for various crafts or just for playing and counting. We usually buy them at the Dollar Tree but you can find them on Amazon too.
• Fluffy Pom Poms. We have approximately 1million of these in our house. Here is a good post about fun ways to use them!
• Cookie Cutters. I just used a circle one for this Earth Day playdough kit! But, you could use some creative ones like these ocean themed ones.
• Little Figures. We have so many little figures in our house and I’ve finally found a good use for them. We use a little narwhal and Dory for this ocean theme! Here is a whole set of ocean animals!

Now, the question that always needs asked when sharing kids activities. How long will my child be entertained? Okay, and second question. Will they do this independently?

I can’t speak for every child and we know it changes day by day, but Olivia (4.5) will play with her kits for at least an hour. Sometimes we need to add a few more play doh containers, but this entertains her so much!

Now for the independent question. Again, depends on your child but Olivia will generally do this all on her own with the occasionally (every 3 minutes), “Mom, did you see this? Mom, I made a bubble! Mom, look!” To which I happily look up and say “wow, honey, great job!” while happily sipping my warm coffee.

Olivia loved this ocean themed playdough kit and it was perfect for our Earth Day celebrations. Especially if you pair with this book! Here are a few other themes of kits you could make for your kiddo.

• Outer Space
• Farm Animals
• Holidays (Valentine’s Day, Easter, Christmas, etc.)
• Construction Site
• Gardening
• Seasons
• Fairies

I could make an entire list of ideas for the sensory kits! The opportunities are seriously endless. I selfishly love making them so Olivia (and Finn eventually) will definitely be getting more and more!