Continuing our fun with the All About Me learning theme, we spent some time creating sensory self-portraits with play dough. If you’ve been following along in our learning adventures, you already know that we love play dough invitations. Play dough is an excellent way to weave in building those fine motor skills for writing and encourage creativity.
I invited my little one to create a self-portrait of herself using a variety of materials for this play dough activity. This sensory learning activity incorporates science to spark creativity, encourage fine motor practice, and involve the senses!
FIND ALL OF OUR ALL ABOUT ME ACTIVITIES IN OUR PRINTABLE LESSON PLANS
FOR HOME PRESCHOOL AND PRESCHOOL CLASSROOMS.
Materials Needed for Sensory Self-Portraits
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- Play dough
- Handheld mirror or printed picture of self
- Loose craft parts (pony beads, buttons, pom poms, ribbon, chenille craft pipe cleaners, etc.)
- Optional: All About Me Books to read together before, during, or after playtime
Getting Started with Your All About Me Sensory Self-Portraits
Before we began our play dough self-portrait, we spent some time reviewing our body parts. A fun way to identify and review parts is by using a mirror. My little one had such a great time making mirror observations of herself in our previous All About Me science activity, that we pulled it back out.
We also referred back to our life-size labeled drawing from last week to identify and count each body part. This served as a great visual review and practice of one-to-one correspondence as she counted and touched the parts of the body.
I set up the sensory self-portrait activity using a variety of miscellaneous craft items such as pony beads, googly eyes, buttons, ribbon, and pipe cleaners. I found some multicultural play dough in a Play-Doh Super Color Pack for constructing the body. You could also make your own play dough or choose any colors that you have on hand.
Create!
Now the self-portrait creation can begin! Starting with the play dough, she squished and rolled out the dough.
We discussed the shape of our heads and decided to use the Play Doh container to stamp and carve a circle out of the dough.
I assisted her in forming the torso of the body and then she quickly got to work on her self-portrait. She immediately selected some googly eyes and announced that she needed two.
A pony bead suited her best for the nose, and she happily chose a piece of pink string with pom-poms on it for the mouth. She excitedly exclaimed that it looked like it had teeth!
As the self-portrait sensory fun continued, she quickly recognized what the body needed to be complete. She counted out two arms and two legs using pipe cleaners, two hands and two feet using play dough, two buttons for ears, and then some raffia to complete her light brown hair. I especially loved her choice to add a bellybutton using buttons!
This sensory self-portrait activity can be set out as a learning station for older preschoolers and elementary aged students or a small group activity for younger learners. You could also add in additional play dough colors for their creations. To assist in making personal observations, you may choose to set out a handheld mirror or a printed photo for their self-portraits. Have fun creating!
Combine this play dough invitation with our Self-Portrait Collage Project for even more All About Me fun and learning.
GET A FULL WEEK OF ALL ABOUT ME THEME LEARNING AND PLAY
Save time and get right to the playful learning with our printable lesson plan sets. Each set includes over 30 playful learning activities related to the theme, and we’ve provided different versions for home preschool families and classroom teachers so all activities are geared directly toward your needs.
Help preschoolers learn more about themselves and each other with this preschool All About Me lesson plan theme. Topics covered include body parts, facial features, family, and more.
Watch this short video to see just a few examples of the types of activities and printables included in this set:
This set includes active hands-on learning ideas and the following printables:
1) All About Me Emergent Reader
2) All About Me Number Cards
3) Body Part Sorting Cards
4) All About Me Shared Writing Template
5) Body Parts Activity Cube
6) Facial Features Activity Cube
7) Boy and Girl All About Me Roll and Color Game Boards
8) Boy and Girl Make a Face Activity Templates
GET YOUR LESSON PLANS
Home Preschool All About Me Theme Lesson Plans
Preschool Classroom All About Me Theme Lesson Plans
All of our products are also available on Teachers Pay Teachers if you prefer to shop there.
Laura
Thank you for all the wonderful ideas.
I am a Preschool teacher -my class has 6 children.
I love incorporating ideas-.plus the preschoolers come up with their own creative ideas too.