The Best Homemade Play Dough Sensory Kits

Playdough sensory kits will entertain your kids for hours on end! They’ll help your child be creative, learn through play, and explore.

I’m so lucky to have a daughter! All my life, I dreamed about having at least one daughter and I was blessed to have my daughter, Penny. She turned 4 last February. In the fall, I decided not to put Penny in preschool and to keep her home with me for one last year before kindergarten. Penny is very social, but I didn’t want her to fall behind in any area, because she wasn’t attending preschool.

Over and over I kept feeling like I needed to make sensory kits. I knew she would learn so much from playing with them.

So, I decided to go for it! First, I needed playdough. I used my favorite homemade play dough recipe, and I made three different colors in each kit. Then, I collected little things I thought would be perfect for each themed kit. I put all of the items in plastic clear bins I bought from ikea.

Different Themes for Sensory Kits

Dinosaur Kit

In this kit, I made green, white, and blue playdough. Then, I put dinosaurs, plastic trees, plastic rocks, really white rocks, green and yellow gems, more plastic trees, and road signs.

My dinosaur playdough sensory kit with dinosaurs, playdough, rocks, and trees.

Fairy Kit

I made light pink, dark glittery pink, and green playdough, and I put fairies, gold and silver plastic coins, wood stamps, mini gnomes and mushrooms, and purple, blue, green, and white gems in this kit.

Light pink, dark pink, and green playdough

Wood butterfly stamps and purple, pink, blue, green and white gems

Fall Kit

Orange, brown, and yellow playdough are the colors I made for my fall kit. I added different kinds of pumpkins, two acrylic turkeys, gold and silver pipe cleaner, orange gems, and wood acorns.

Sparkly orange pumpkins, gold and silver pipe cleaners, and acrylic turkeys

Space Kit

Black, green, and gold playdough is so fun in the space kit. My kids love this kit with the astronauts, planets, and space ships. It also has silver and gold pipe cleaners, rocks, and blue, yellow, and white gems.

Glittery gold, black, and green playdough

Astronauts, spaceships, and gold and silver pipe cleaners

So far, I’ve made five kits, but I’m going to make a lot more. They’ve been such a hit with my kids. All three of them, even my one year old, love to play with the kits!

Other playdough sensory kit ideas:

Arctic (gemstones, stones, snowflakes, underwater trees)
Forrest/mountains (stamps, trees, wood, rocks, leaves, mushrooms)
Baking (pom poms, gems, candles, rolling pin, cookie cutters, trinkets, silicone baking cups, painted chickpeas)
Construction (vehicles, wood sticks, rocks, leaves, small wooden cubes)
Under the sea (shells, gems, animals, rocks)
Sky (cotton balls, airplanes, gems, trees)
Mermaid (stamps, sea shells, gold foam balls, jewels, white plastic balls)
Christmas (mini ornaments, mini trees, pom poms, stars, presents,)
Holiday (Valentine’s, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, Fourth of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving)

Storing My Playdough Sensory Kits

My kitchen is small, and it doesn’t have much storage. However, there’s a coat closet close where I like to keep all of the arts, crafts, and sensory activities for my kids. I use a cube storage organizer and keep my sensory kits in one of the cubes.

On top of the the cube organizer, I keep three cookie sheets. My kids know they can play with the playdough kits whenever they’d like. I’ve taught them to play with them on a cookie sheet, so it’s easy to clean up. They also each have an apron they wear while playing.

FAQs

How do I make sensory play dough?

Make play dough using my favorite homemade play dough recipe. Add cinnamon, vanilla, spices, or anything you’d like to add scent. Knead it together until it’s cooled.

How do you make a sensory play dough kit?

Make play dough. Get trinkets like little buttons, toys, things found in nature (rocks, wood, leaves), anything else that your kids will like to play with, and put them in a bin. The kids can use their imagination to create something fun!

How do you make something like playdough?

Add 1 cup flour, 1/4 cup salt, 2 teaspoons cream of tartar, 1 tablespoon oil, 1 cup water, and food coloring to a bowl and mix it together. Add food coloring. Put it in a pan and continuously stir until it becomes a dough.