Cat in the Hat Activities with Play Dough

March 2 is Read Across America Day and Dr. Seuss’ birthday! If you’re looking for some inspiration, check out these cat in the hat activities to try with play dough. You’ll want to add these ideas to your list of Dr. Seuss activities to try with the kids.

play dough cat in the hat activities for kids

I purchased all the materials we used locally, but I’m including affiliate links to comparable items below (for your reference).

Materials
White play dough
Red play dough
Glass gems – red and clear
Pony beads – red and white
Pipe cleaners – red and white
White navy beans (dry)
Red garbanzo beans (dry)
Letter stamps

Prep
The kiddos and I made our play dough, but store bought would work just as well. I am in love with The Imagination Tree’s white play dough, so we made that first. Then we used her no-cook play dough recipe to create our red play dough (I just added red food coloring to the hot water). NurtureStore is my other go-to site for play dough recipes!

I used red food coloring to dye a handful of dry garbanzo beans. And Next Comes L has an alternative dyeing method if you’re looking for one.

Set Up
All of the bits and bobs were placed in a sorting tray I picked up from The Dollar Tree ages ago. I decided to be extra goofy and arranged the play dough in a pattern like the cat in the hat’s hat. Sometimes I’m easily entertained! 🙂

How the kids played
This is a great example that “older” kids love getting into play dough too. I had three second-graders and one preschooler playing with this play dough, and they all loved it! They played with it for over an hour and had an awesome time.

Engineer, my son, decided to make his own cat and told me I should, too. So he and I set about making our own versions. Personally, I like his better! He was a little disappointed that I didn’t make black play dough, as the cat is black and white. Black pipe cleaners did fine in a pinch, though.

One of the kiddos had a lot of fun stamping words in the play dough. She’d roll it out, stamp away, and then roll it out some more. She and I worked together to make a striped hat, then made “-at” word family words with the letter stamps.

The play dough creations continued for some time, as I mentioned. In addition to ideas related to The Cat in the Hat, we also had monsters, remote control cars, a hot dog car, and heart cupcakes. Needless to say, there was no end to the creativity.