Fine Motor Skills Practice with Playdough and Whole Cloves

I love activities that involve multiple senses.  This one combines fine motor skills work with the lovely aroma of cloves.  We've been going through the Story of the World, and just finished the chapter about the start of farming in the Nile Delta.  I decided that it would be fun to invite L and E (almost 3) to plant some 'crops' next to a playdough river using whole cloves...

We actually ended up using Model Magic (air-dry clay) instead of playdough because I wanted to let it dry and then flood the river (since we were discussing how the flooding of the Nile made the land fertile).  I set out a container of whole cloves and showed the girls how to stick them into the clay.  The cloves smelled wonderful, and both of the girls enjoyed putting them into the clay one by one to 'plant their crops'.  E worked especially diligently on this activity and told me that it was "so much fun" when she was done.

L also used the cloves to decorate a cake:

This was a very enjoyable sensory exploration and fine motor activity for the kids, and we'll be including cloves in our regular playdough play in the future..

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