Forest Animal Play Dough Small World

Almost every child I know loves play dough! In addition to being great for strengthening hand muscles, it’s just fun to play with. It was the perfect “base” for a simple forest animal small world activity.

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printable forest animal activity

Activity goals
In addition to having fun, this forest animal small world allows children to explore these early learning concepts:

• Fine motor skills
• Vocabulary development
• Oral language development
• Letter and word knowledge

Materials
Labeled forest animals free printable (grab it HERE)
Play dough
Mini pine cones
Laminator (optional)
Laminator pouches (optional)

Prep
Print out the labeled forest animal cards. I’d suggest cutting them out and laminating them, as they’ll be sturdier that way.

Directions
For this open-ended small world activity, let the kids lead the way! Place all of the items out on a tray or a table, then see what they do. I think this would be perfect after reading a forest animal book, or after learning a bit about animals that live in the forests nearby.

Children might use the printable animals to tell silly stories. They could possibly use the play dough to create a forest floor for the animals to play on. Perhaps the mini pine cones (or regular-sized pine cones, if you have them) could act as the trees in the forest.

Related: Winter Small World Play

Other ideas
These printable forest animals could be used in a variety of other activities, too.

• Place them in a pocket chart or a file folder. Then the kids could use them as a mini word wall, of sorts.
• Have children match up small animal toys to the appropriate printable animal.
• Bring out some letter tiles, then help the children make the animal words.

How would your children use these printable forest animals? Would a play dough small world be fun for them?

More #TeachECE activities around a forest theme
Be sure to pop over and see what the rest of the Early Childhood Education team has to share –