Play Dough Hidden Treasures for Many Preschool Skills

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Play Dough Hidden Treasures is one of our favorite (and easiest) activities that will entertain my boys for at least a half hour.

Have you ever met a child who doesn’t enjoy a hidden treasure?

Grab your favorite modelling medium, a bunch of small toys, and discover, identify, match, and play your way to learning fun!

While you have your play dough out, check out 35+ Things to Make with Play Dough.

Play Dough Hidden Treasures Activity

My boys LOVE any type of surprise whether it’s a chocolate kiss or an old penny.

What can I say, some are easier to please than others. Am I right?

This whole idea started when my oldest son became obsessed with those toy videos of people ripping open play dough and sand to discover toys.

I rolled my eyes at the videos until I realized, “Hey! I can do this FOR REAL and get him away from this darn screen!”

Supplies Needed for Hidden Treasures Play Dough Activity

Play dough (or kinetic sand)
Small toys
Optional: play dough tools for added fine motor skills

Hide little toys or trinkets in play dough and have the kids unwrap hidden treasures for all kinds of fine motor, sensory, and learning fun!

Just look at that face.

This kid is always so excited to see which old, junky toy I found under the couch to hide inside some half-dried-out play dough.

The great thing about this activity is that there are SO MANY opportunities to make it educational without the kids even realizing it.

Consider the possibilities with me:

Fine Motor Skills Building

Pulling apart play dough and extracting a small hidden treasures are the simplest fine motor skills used in this activity.

Add some tools to the mix and enhance it.

We use the plastic clay tools for safety, but you can easily use a plastic knife or spoon to cut and scoop away dough, or plastic safety scissors to cut away.

If you’re new to cutting, take a look at five cutting activities to build up those skills.

Go grab that pretend toolbox in the play room to saw, drill, or use a hammer and screwdriver like a chisel.

The hand-eye coordination and manipulation skills needed increases exponentially with the addition of tools!

Download FREE Week of Fine Motor Activities for Pre-Writing HERE

Identification in Hidden Treasures with Play Dough

If your child is at the early talking stage, use this fun activity for identification of whatever words you’re trying to teach.

Hide small farm animal figurines then name the animal or sound it makes when it’s uncovered.

Wrap up cars and name their colors.

Zoo animals, shapes, vehicles, numbers, letters, Disney characters… if you have a small toy for it, wrap it as a hidden treasure in the play dough!

Here is my 2-year old, Chris, discovering his dinosaurs.

Upon finding it, Chris will say, “Ah! Found it!” and I’ll respond, “You found the dinosaur! Look at the yellow and orange stegosaurus!”

Matching Hidden Treasures with Play Dough Prints

When you’re ready to step it up a notch in the learning field, add MATCHING to the fun!

Preschoolers unwrap hidden treasures out of play dough! Simple fine motor fun. Add letter matching to it for a learning twist or try spelling their names.

In the picture, you’ll see how I imprinted the cut-out letters into the dough before I hid them.

When the letter is uncovered, I will say, “H! Huh Huh Huh. H. Where is the H?”

Ideally, my son will repeat either the letter, the sound, or match up the cut-out to the imprint.

I don’t pressure the learning, I just constantly talk about it knowing that kids listen to way more than we give them credit for.

If you’re working on your animals or animal sounds, have them unwrap the animal and then see if they can match up the animal prints (or shape of the whole animal) while you name each figure and make the sound.

My pre-schooler LOVES animal facts, so we might use this time to grab a book about animals and learn some fun facts while he matches the prints.

Animal Print Matching with fine motor play dough hidden treasure activity. So much learning possibilities as you decide which theme to hide in the play dough. Animals, letters, colors, shapes, etc.

A Few Tips Before You Begin

I recommend making a few hidden treasure balls before you start the activity.

Kids are REALLY FAST at tearing things apart, so you may find yourself frantically trying to keep up.

Three to five treasures is a good start!

If you don’t have play dough or kinetic sand on hand, you can always apply many of these concepts to any sensory play bin – just bury the objects instead.