There are so many ways to play with playdough, and this simple material always manages to keep my children entertained. We were sent a couple of different baking sets from Bigjigs toys for this months Play Patrol mission, so we decided to use one for baking role play with playdough and the other for real baking. Look out for some simple recipes using the young chef’s baking set soon.
For this playdough baking activity, we used the pastry set from Bigjigs toys which includes a wooden mat to work on, along with a rolling pin, spoon and spatula and six brightly coloured cutters in different shapes.
Using a real wooden rolling pin is much nicer than using cheap plasticky ones that you can get to use with playdough.
This type of activity, whether baking role play with playdough or actual baking, is a great type of language rich play for young children as they chat about what they are doing – rolling, cutting, squishing, squeezing, mixing and lots more. All of these actions are perfect for strengthening their hand muscles and developing fine motor skills.
It’s also a good chance to talk about shapes and colours, and to use creativity to come up with wild and wonderful creations
This is T’s “birthday cake” complete with a candle and red flame. They used the spoon to transfer their ‘cakes’ from place to place, and used it to pretend to flip pancakes too – using thin circles of playdough that they had rolled out with the rolling pin.
We added some real baking supplies to tie in with the baking theme and add some variety to their play. It’s fun to add colour with sprinkles and they experimented with using the cutters to create sprinkle shapes on their dough.
The shapes in this pastry set from Bigjigs are: train, penguin, star, christmas tree, car and dog.
The Bigjigs pastry set is available on their website for £ 5.99, which is really reasonable to me for a great quality set. It is a food grade set, you can also use it for baking as well as playdough activities. I’m sure we will use it for both. Since playdough is non toxic it’s fine to just wash it in between uses and let it be multi purpose!
For the playdough role play, you could try any of these simple playdough recipes or use shop bought, and see even more playdough ideas here.
You might also like these simple play ideas using Bigjigs toys:
- Developing Teamwork Skills with BigJigs Wooden Construction
- Developing Imaginary Play with Bigjigs Road and Rail
- Teddy Bear’s Picnic with Bigjigs Cutting Fruit
- Ways to Play and Learn with Wooden Blocks [Bigjigs Play Patrol]
- Chalk Self Portraits or Still Life Chalk Invitation to Create
- Dinosaur Sticky Wall
Anna Marikar, mum of four and seasoned blogger, has spent over a decade sharing her parenting journey and passion for kid-friendly crafts and free printables.
Her easy-to-follow craft ideas and practical parenting advice have transformed In The Playroom into a cherished resource for parents.
I love this post and using the set for play rather than cooking. Loving your new header! x