Salt playdough is incredibly easy and cheap to make. All you need is some basic ingredients: flour, salt and water. Making the dough is an activity in itself. It is a great way to get kids to practice English vocabulary for counting and measuring as well as following instructions. If you don’t have the equipment or opportunity to do cooking in class, this is a fantastic way to practice cooking vocabulary and actions. Once the dough is made, you can use it in lots of activities and games. You can adapt these to pretty much any theme or subject you want. So here is my guide to how to make salt playdough and the different ways you can use it in EFL ESL classes with children. If you haven’t tried this before, do give it a go. It is really easy and I promise you that the kids will love it.
How to make salt playdough
You will need 3 basic ingredients: 2 cups of flour, 1 cup of salt and 1 cup of water. This will make a ball of dough that is big enough for about 6-8 kids so adjust the quantities for bigger classes. If you want, you can add food coloring or paint powder to color the dough or spices such as cinnamon or ginger to make it smell good. You could even add glitter or stars to make it sparkly.
Don’t forget – This dough is not edible so don’t let the kids eat it!!!
If you’re making the dough in class, drill the ingredients and the quantities before starting. Practice the different actions too: measure, stir, roll, cut, etc. Then make the dough in front of the class asking some of the kids to come and be helpers. Alternatively, if the kids are older, put them in groups and let them make it. Pour the flour and salt into a bowl and mix it together. Then add the water and mix, first with a spoon and then with your hands, until it forms a ball. If it’s too dry, add more water. If it’s too wet, add a bit more flour.
How to use salt playdough in EFL ESL kids classes
Once you have a ball of salt playdough ready, you can use it in a variety of ways. You can of course just give each child a small ball of dough and some cookie cutters and rolling pins and let them make what they want. If you’ve been learning about cooking actions and equipment, you could continue this theme and ask them to make some pretend food or cups and plates for serving. Or just let them use their imagination and make whatever they want.
You can also use the playdough as a prop to play some games to practice vocabulary and speaking for any other subject or theme you choose. Here are some ideas:
Playdough Pictionary
This is a really easy version of the classic game. I’m sure most of you have played it in your classes by thinking of a word and drawing a picture so that the class can guess what the word is. Well, this is exactly the same but instead of drawing, you or the kids need to make a quick model with the playdough. While the model is being made the children can ask questions, “Is it a cat?” or “Is it a dinosaur?”. If they get the right answer, it’s their turn next. This is a really good way of getting children to think fast and use their imagination.
Let’s build a ………
Another game based on something you’ve probably already played. This is like the paper folding game where each person draws a bit of a monster before folding the paper and passing it on. It’s much the same but making a playdough model and it doesn’t have to be a monster. You could use this game to gradually build anything: a house, an animal, a person, whatever you want. Useful tip – start building at the bottom so feet or walls rather than head or roof.
Give each child a piece of dough and get them to split this up into 4 or 5 parts depending on what you are building. They will also need a piece of cloth or something to cover their model while they are passing it on. Start off by saying, “Let’s build a monster! First make the feet”. Once they have all made the feet, get them to cover the model and pass it on to the next child. Ask someone else to decide which bit to build next. Carry on like this until you have the complete monster/object then get everyone to reveal their monster and describe it to the class.
Happy / Sad faces
If you’re learning about feelings with smaller children, this would be a fun activity and a good way to practice. Roll out some dough to make face shapes, enough for each child to have one. Then, either using more dough or anything else you want to use, make eyes, noses and mouths. Ask the kids to make happy faces, sad faces, angry faces and any other feelings you’ve learned. When they’ve done this, they can practice asking each other, “How are you today?” and then change their dough face depending on the answer.
Storytelling
I love using stories in class and I think playdough would be a great way to do this. You could use it as a prop for the kids to invent and tell their own story using characters made out of playdough. Alternatively, you could give them some objects made from playdough that you have prepared earlier and ask them to invent a story using these. If you’re feeling very creative, you could ask them to make a movie using characters made from playdough and a script written by them. You could show them Morph to give them some inspiration.
Salt playdough is a really versatile activity to use in your EFL ESL classes. As well as the activity of making the playdough itself, you can use it in a variety of different ways. Let your imagination and creativity go wild and see what else you can come up with. If you’ve made salt playdough in your classes, I’d love to hear your ideas for using it. So if you’ve got any great suggestions to share, please leave a comment below. You can find lots more ideas for games and activities to use in your classes here. To stay in touch and keep up to date, please follow the GoogooEnglish Facebook page or sign up for email updates below.