Get Outside And...Play with Peppermint Playdough and Petals

I grew up always hearing the gardeners in my life complain about weeds and yet, as an adult who gardens, I cannot help but be completely fascinated and enamored with them! Indeed, while something I plant with intention and care can whither at the mere thought of too much water, not enough sun, shifts in soil pH or an approaching pest, a dandelion sprouts up with vigor and vim between the cracks of our sidewalk. Weeds are amazing! They are independent, self-sufficient, often times beautiful and adapt to the many shifts and changes in their environment. And in the spring, weeds are often among the first signs of renewal of renewal in our yards and gardens. Indeed, the first colorful blooms of the season in our yard are the abundance of weeds that are freely growing where apartment landscaping wants to lawn to be. (I, admittedly prefer the violets and dandelions.)

Petal play is such a whimsical part of childhood. Mixing mud cakes and garden "salads," fairy potions and garden side tea parties would not be possible without the copious amounts of weeds in our yard (and our little snipping garden--but more on that later). And when I'm setting up activities to take outside to our I Wonder station, sometimes it's fun to mix the "traditional" with the "less traditional." We don't often think about playdough as an outdoor activity, but why not? Especially if you are one of those folks who doesn't like the potential mess inside, outside is a great place to take playdough activities! So I grabbed my ingredients and favorite stovetop recipe, added a spring green color with food coloring and some peppermint essential oil for scent, and set up shop outside. I also picked a selection of the most beautiful weeds wildflowers.

In addition to the dough and flowers, I stocked our basket with some favorite playdough tools (rolling pins, plastic knives, cookie cutters) and even some plastic planting pots. One potential issue of playdough play outdoors is surface availability. You may not want your playdough full of soil and mulch (or maybe you do!) and you may not want it stuck to the sidewalk. If you have a table outdoors, that's great, but in the absence of a table to work at, I love plastic trays. I got ours at the Dollar Tree at one point; of course, I haven't seen them there since--but any type of tray will work, even recycled sushi trays.

The boys got to decide how to use the materials and they had a lot of great ideas! I played, too, because even at 30 or so years their senior, petals and peppermint playdough are still such fun!

We had a great time planting playdough flower gardens, making designs and carefully thought out landscaping decisions...

...I even worked a self portrait into creation--striking resemblance, if I do say so myself!

It was fascinating to see the prints left behind in the dough from small leaves and flowers!

In the absence of colorful weeds and wildflowers, or in addition to it, you might consider planting/providing a small snipping garden in your yard. We just recently added ours after I came across the idea in the fabulous play gardening companion, The Garden Classroom: Hands-On Activities in Math, Science, Literacy and Art by Cathy James. In gardening with young children, there can be a world full of "no's." No walking on the garden plot, no picking flowers, no watering over here... I love when I can get to a "yes" and a small garden where it is OK, and even encouraged to snip, pick and play with the flowers (or foliage or herbs) and use them in play of all kinds is the perfect way to do so.

Our snipping garden is just a few inexpensive flowering plants with small blossoms and foliage planted in a plastic window box from last year's dollar store selection. When selecting your "crop," choose whatever is on sale or a small section of your actual flowering plants, herbs or smaller veggies. Perhaps your snipping garden will be an herb garden or a lettuce garden instead, or contain a bit of a few different things. The most important thing is that touching, picking, snipping and using what is growing inside is allowed and encouraged.

Just above the snipping garden hangs a small tin pale with scissors. Tiny garden signs label the space as a "snipping garden" where the boys and guests can "help yourself!" It is situated quite close in proximity to plants that are not for cutting/picking and if this becomes more confusing, I may move it to a more solitary location. Nonetheless, so far the boys have taken quite well to being able to get their hands on this little bitty flower patch while being more cautious and protective over our pansies and strawberry plants int he background!

Playdough activities outdoors add a new and exciting element to a familiar activity that is typically done indoors. This is a great way to inspire outdoor play for children who may be more reluctant toward some of the sensory experiences outside. Here are some variations on the same theme using playdough outdoors:

• Self portraits: as depicted above, you can use balls of dough rolled into circles either on a tray or even on a vertical surface such as a wall, fence, or tree trunk to create a self portrait or funny face using flowers, foliage and nature's loose parts
• Nature prints in playdough: flowers, leaves, pine ones, seeds, pods, small pebbles, acorns...what can you scavenge and discover to add a unique print to playdough?
• Playdough Fairy Gardens: this unique base to fairy garden play is great both indoors and outside, where there is an abundance of nature's loose parts and tiny treasures to add...
• Adding Texture & Scent with Fresh Cut Herbs: In lieu of (or addition to) petals, why not cut some sprigs of fresh herbs from your garden to add to your playdough. Snipped and torn into very tiny pieces, you can add a unique scent and texture to your dough fresh from the garden. We've done this indoors on several occasions (usually when I have some herbs from cooking to use up) and it is a wonderful activity to adapt to outdoor use.
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  In this blast from the past, S is using playdough
  to explore "parts of a flower" (seeds, stems, leaves
  and blossoms)--this is a great activity to take
  outside as well!

• Add Playdough as a Sensory Component of a Potting Shed Dramatic Play Center: Adding elements of dramatic play to your playgarden is a great way to expand on and enhance outdoor play. Empty planting pots, gardening tools and flowers (real or artificial) can be a great addition to your outdoor dramatic play setup and playdough is a great material to add some sensory exploration (not to mention a means to stick your flowers in your pots) to the scene!

And, of course, you can use playdough outdoors in any of the same ways you'd use it indoors. It doesn't even have to be "garden" related. It's easily transportable, you could even take it to the park (we have!) and, especially when you make your own, it is both budget and environmentally friendly overall. So we'll see you outside...

Happy Playing!