Discover: Three Baby Turtle Playdough Invitations

Tiny turtles everywhere! Baby animals are where it’s at this week (take a gander at our brood of egg carton cup ducklings!) and it seems that pond life is too. In keeping with our themes, we decided to combine a little nature hunt, 3-D forms, pattern & stamping discovery for some baby turtle playdough sensory play. What’s not to love, right?

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With just a few different simple setups, hours of open-ended learning and play are to be had! We used everyday household, combined with homemade playdough and recycled supplies for each easy activity. To take your turtle play to the next level, you can even create a recycled cardboard play pet tank!

For more fun playdough activities, make a fairy forest with nature supplies, beat the heat with a summer swim playdough invitation, or start up your own playdough donut bakery!

To create your own turtle play dough invitation you’ll need:

Note: We prefer to shop locally or use what we have at home, but this list contains a few Woodpeckers Crafts and/or Amazon affiliate links for reference. As Amazon Associates we make a small commission on qualifying purchases.*

Simple Kids Turtle Play Setup Ideas:

Invitation A: Make Turtles

Lay out a few balls of play dough, a basket of natural materials, and a stack of egg carton cups (they make the perfect baby turtle shells!). This invitation allows kids to build their own turtles and explore the forms & shapes they’re made of.

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You may also want to lay out some pictures of different kinds of turtles. Sea turtles, for instance, look very different from pond turtles. I absolutely love the different variations created in these little turtles – so much personality!

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Invitation B: Stamp a Turtle Shell

Using the same natural materials or simple household objects you used from the last exercise, you can invite kids to create patterns on turtle shells. Download and print our turtle playdough mats, or let them begin by building their own turtle shapes – flat this time to create a stamping surface.

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It’s so much fun to see what patterns they come up with and watch them discover the unique imprints common supplies can make in the dough.

Invitation 3: Build a Turtle Habitat

The last invitation is probably my favorite, as it provides so much opportunity for creative storytelling and imagination. Again, you can use the same basket of natural supplies as the basis for this – inviting kids to build a home for their play dough turtles.

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I started by cutting a simple pond shape. We glued sticks to a halved cardboard tube to create a little “log” and then just added bits & pieces as we talked about the places turtles like to live and what would make a nice home for them.

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In addition to discussing habitats, this is a wonderful occasion to talk about the differences between wild and domestic animals, or even wildlife conservation. You can even combine these turtle activities with our egg carton cup floating whale (you seriously have to see this!) for a sea ecology lesson.

If this easy habitat lesson is a hit, you’ll definitely want to check out our tutorial for making your own nature explorer’s kit from a shoebox. It is a fabulous follow-up that encourages science-based observation and investigation.

So there you have it – three fun invitations from just a few things! It couldn’t have been simpler and I can’t wait to do it again!

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*A note about affiliate links: We strive to use simple, earth-friendly supplies that can be purchased locally whenever we can, but sometimes we find the best universally available options, a rare eco-friendly find, or a niche product only available on Amazon or Woodpecker Crafts. When included in our supply list, these products are affiliate links, and if you click-through to make a purchase, we receive a small commission that helps us re-order these supplies!