Super fun baby doll activities for toddlers, preschoolers and kindergartners. Get all the benefits children gain from playing with dolls while keeping them busy and entertained!
Why Playing with Dolls Matters
Playing with dolls is great for all children. It helps them improve their social skills, empathy towards others and h their sense of responsibility. It is also a wonderful way to develop language skills.
Baby dolls are wonderful for encouraging pretend play, nurturing skills, creativity, and hands-on exploration.
From sensory baths and silly painting activities to homemade beds and carriers, there are so many easy ways to give a favorite doll a whole new role in playtime.
Here are some fun baby doll activities and DIY supplies to try with toddlers, preschoolers, and older kids. Adult supervision is recommended, especially for activities with small parts or materials that aren’t taste-safe.
Fun Activities with Baby Dolls
Baby Doll Haircuts
Baby Doll Haircuts is an adorable and easy to create fine motor scissor skills activity for preschoolers and kindergartners using baby dolls! Let your little one give their dolls a real haircut over and over again!
Materials: Baby Dolls (without hair), Construction Paper, Glue or tape, Scissors, Child scissors.
How to: Fold a sheet of construction paper lengthwise and cut along the folded line. Then use scissors to cut the paper into thin strands leaving the bottom of the sheet intact. Grabbed a baby doll and put the ‘wig’ around the its head. The ‘wig’ to fit tightly on the baby’s head so that it does not slip off as your child is cutting it hair.
For the full tutorial, click the link: Baby Doll Haircuts
Feed the Baby Sensory Bin
Turn feeding the baby into a fun sensory and fine motor activity! Kids can scoop, pour, and pretend to prepare meals for their baby doll while practicing hand-eye coordination.
Materials: Baby doll, sensory bin, dry sensory filler, bowls or containers, spoons and scoops.
How to: Fill a bin with your sensory material and add bowls, spoons, and feeding accessories. Invite your child to scoop up the sensory material, prepare pretend meals, and feed their baby.
For the full tutorial, click the link: Feed the Baby Sensory Bin
Baby Doll Colouring
Here is a colouring activity with a surprising canvas—a baby doll! It’s a playful way for kids to experiment with colour while strengthening fine motor skills.
Materials: Washable markers, baby doll, towel or tray.
How to: Place the baby doll on a towel or tray and let your child decorate it with washable markers. When the artwork is finished, add another activity by letting them wash their baby clean.
For the full tutorial, click the link: Baby Doll Colouring
Rose Petal Baby Doll Bath
Make baby doll bath time extra special with bubbles and beautiful rose petals. Kids can wash, rinse, and pamper their dolls while enjoying calming water play.
Materials: Baby dolls, sensory bin, bubble bath, rose petals, sponges or brushes, washcloths and towels.
How to: Prepare a bubbly bath for the dolls and add rose petals to the water. Give your child sponges and washcloths and let them wash, rinse, and care for their babies.
For the full tutorial, click the link: Rose Petal Baby Doll Bath
Shaving Cream and Baby Dolls
Get ready for wonderfully messy sensory play! Shaving cream turns an ordinary baby doll bath into a fluffy, squishy experience kids can explore again and again.
Materials: Baby dolls, shaving cream, water, sensory bins or containers, bowls, spoons, baby comb or brush, washcloths and towels.
How to: Add shaving cream to one container and water to another. Let kids cover their dolls in shaving cream, scoop and mix it, brush their dolls’ hair, and then wash everything clean in the water.
For the full tutorial, click the link: Shaving Cream and Baby Dolls
Baby Doll Face & Body Paint
Let your child become a baby doll artist! Washable kids’ paint and cotton swabs make this a simple process-art activity with an equally fun clean-up activity afterward.
Materials: Washable kids’ paint, baby doll, paint palette or small dishes, cotton swabs, towel and water.
How to: Add a few colours of washable paint to a palette. Give your child cotton swabs and invite them to make dots, lines, swirls, and other designs on the doll. When they are finished, wash the doll together. Test the washable paint on a small hidden area of the doll first.
Elastics and Baby Dolls
This super-simple fine motor activity gives little hands a workout while turning a baby doll into an invitation to experiment.
Materials: Baby doll and large soft hair elastics.
How to: Set out the doll with several large elastics. Encourage your child to stretch the elastics over the doll’s arms, legs, and body, then remove them and start again. Use only large elastics and supervise closely.
Bandaid and Baby Dolls
Oh no—baby has a boo-boo! Bandages transform a baby doll into a patient and give kids an easy way to explore caregiving through pretend play.
Materials: Baby doll and adhesive bandages.
How to: Pretend the doll has a few little injuries and invite your child to find each boo-boo and cover it with a bandage. Talk about different body parts as they play.
Pretend Doctor Play
A baby doll makes the perfect patient for a pretend doctor’s office. Kids can check, diagnose, and care for their baby while building language and imaginative-play skills.
Materials: Baby doll, toy doctor kit, bandages, blanket, clipboard and paper.
How to: Set up a small doctor’s office and let your child give the baby a checkup. They can listen to the baby’s heart, check its temperature, apply pretend medicine or bandages, and tuck their patient in to rest.
Baby Doll Washing & Caring Station
Combine water play and dramatic play with a simple baby doll care station that encourages children to wash, dry, dress, and nurture their dolls.
Materials: Baby doll, shallow tub or sensory bin, water, washcloth, sponge, towel, brush or comb and doll clothes.
How to: Fill a shallow container with a little water and place the care supplies nearby. Children can wash their baby, rinse it, wrap it in a towel, brush its hair, get it dressed, and put it down for a nap.
DIY Baby Doll Supplies
You don’t have to buy lots of accessories to expand baby doll play. Cardboard, fabric, magnetic tiles, and other everyday materials can become beds, cribs, carriers, diapers, and more.
Cardboard DIY Doll Rocking Crib
An old cardboard box can become an adorable doll cradle that actually rocks. Add homemade bedding and it’s ready for bedtime pretend play.
Materials: Cardboard box, ruler, pencil, craft knife, hot glue, fabric and fiberfill. Ric rac or other decorations are optional.
For the full tutorial, click the link: Cardboard DIY Doll Rocking Crib
DIY Doll Crib
Reuse a cardboard box to make a cute crib with classic slatted sides. This is a fun grown-up DIY project that creates a new prop for hours of pretend play.
Materials: Cardboard box, ruler, marker, utility knife, paint, glue and small caps or scoops for optional crib legs.
For the full tutorial, click the link: DIY Doll Crib
Pretend Doll Swing
Give baby a place to swing! A homemade doll swing adds movement to pretend play and gives children another way to act out their everyday caregiving routines.
Materials: Cardboard box, string, scissors
For the full tutorial, click the link: Pretend Doll Swing
No-Sew Doll Carrier
Kids can keep their baby close with this clever carrier that requires no sewing. It can be worn on the front or back for lots of imaginative baby-wearing play.
Materials: Felt, wide elastic, hot glue gun and glue sticks, plus optional felt for a pocket or decoration.
For the full tutorial, click the link: No-Sew Doll Carrier
No-Sew Baby Doll Diapers
Make reusable doll diapers without pulling out the sewing machine. They’re a fun addition to diaper-changing and caregiving pretend play.
Materials: Felt, fleece or another non-fraying fabric, doll diaper pattern, washable fabric pen, fabric scissors and adhesive-backed Velcro.
For the full tutorial and pattern, click the link: No-Sew Baby Doll Diapers
Play2Learn Toddler & Preschool Programs for Curious Toddlers
There is no limit to your toddler’s energy and curiosity. That energy and curiosity although a joy can be challenging at times. Their interest in just about everything around them is what makes them great learners. One and two year olds can soak up so much just from their senses!
But as a teacher or parent that thirst for learning can be exhausting. That is why I created this toddler and preschooler program. To help you get the most out of this time with your curious toddler without having to come up with creative ways to play and interact with them.
Play2Learn for Toddlers includes 20 Units for toddlers. Each 2-week toddler unit has 20 super easy to set up and engaging activities for toddlers 18 months to 3 years.
Play2Learn Preschool which includes 20 Units for preschoolers. Each 2-week preschoolers unit has 20 unique and easy to set up and engaging activities for preschoolers 3 years to 5 years. That’s over 800 learning activities for your toddler and preschooler at your fingertips! So many ideas you and your child will never be bored again!
These toddler and preschool lesson plans and activities will definitely keep you and your toddler and preschooler busy playing and learning!
Click here for more information: Play2Learn
Book: Exciting Sensory Bins for Curious Kids
Did you know I wrote a book of sensory bins? Click here for more information Exciting Sensory Bin for Curious Kids. Or grab your copy at Amazon.
Boring afternoons are made exciting with awesome animal-based bins, like Salty Shark Bay or Yarn Farm. Pretend play bins like Birthday Cake Sensory Play or Bubble Tea Party encourage creativity and imagination. And your kids will have so much fun they won’t even know they’re getting smarter with STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) activities like Sink or Float Soup, Magnetic Letter Hunt or Ice Cream Scoop and Count.
Designed for toddlers 18 months and up.
Book: Super STEAM Activity Book for Kids
Learning all about science, technology, engineering, art, and math sets kids up for scholastic success―and it can be so much fun! Watch kids enjoy building STEAM skills as they color friendly fish, help water find its way to tree roots, solve math problems with mazes, and more.
Find out more and grab your copy here.
Designed for preschoolers 3 years old and up.
Book: Big Book of Riddles for Kids
Riddle me this: What’s an exciting way to practice critical thinking while having a blast? The Big Riddle Book for Kids, of course! From hilarious puns to tough brain teasers, kids can build problem-solving skills with hundreds of riddles tha. t show them how to think outside the box.
- 350 riddles for kids—Have hours of fun with riddles, puns and jokes, and math and logic puzzles that’ll get their wheels turning!
- Level up their skills—Riddles get trickier as kids progress through the book, challenging them as they get better at solving puzzles!
- Double-check their work—Kids can check their answers in the back of the book with a handy answer key.
Help children expand their minds while having fun with this puzzle book for kids!
Designed for kids ages 6 years old and up.
TV Show: Curious Crafting
I’m so excited to share my crafting TV show Curious Crafting which launched in July 2022 on TVOkids and TVOkids YouTube! Season 2 aired in August 2023! My show was also nominated in 2023 for Best Live Action Preschool Series by the Youth Media Alliance Awards of Excellence.
Curious Crafting Season 1 is also now airing in Australia on ABC! Watch it here!
Set in the ultimate crafting space, Curious Crafting is a short form pre-school age series about the joy of making crafts. I lead a rotating cast of adorable little preschoolers (including my own) making magic out of common household objects.
In each episode we transform recycled items into magical crafts like a milk carton school bus, paper bag puppet or cotton pad turtle. The crafters learn and laugh their way through each activity while demonstrating what their young imaginations can create.
Curious Crafting shares the adventure and joy of making art with takeaway lessons for creating crafts at home.
This show designed for toddlers and preschoolers 2.5 years old and up.
