Playdough Sensory Table

Playdough is great for building, rolling, molding, cutting – you name it! Your child can explore playdough with unrestricted creativity using both their hands and fun tools.

Skills We’re Practicing & What We’re Learning 

• Fine motor skills – using the small muscles in our hands to knead playdough and grasp tools 
• Sensory exploration – learning about textures by touching the playdough
• Imagination – pretending the playdough is something else (pizza, cookies, etc.) to practice symbolic thinking

Boat Making & Tinkering

Inspect materials, then design, build, and decorate a boat. Test how it floats and sails at the water table. Decide if it needs anything added to it or taken away. A fun design activity!

Skills We’re Practicing & What We’re Learning 

• Problem solving – figuring out which materials and methods are best for creating a boat that floats in water, and changing those that don’t work 
• Buoyancy – seeing how some materials and shapes float on water while others sink to the bottom
• Critical thinking – thinking about which materials, shapes, and objects float and why

Rocket Building

Design, build, and decorate a rocketship from cardboard, foam, duct tape, and more. Then, test out how high it can propel with our air-pressurized Rocket Launcher machine! 

Skills We’re Practicing & What We’re Learning 

• Experimentation – figuring out which materials, shapes, and designs are best for helping a rocketship fly through the air 
• Aerodynamics – learning about and seeing why rockets are shaped in a certain way to increase their ability to launch upward through the air 
• Creativity – making independent choices about the colors, materials, and designs of our rockets 

Habitot’s Boat-making and Rocket-building maker activities are funded in part by the Institute for Museum and Library Services. Additional maker activities coming soon!