Ready, Go Play-Doh! {Burger Builder review}

Did you know that more and more teachers are putting Play-Doh on their school supplies lists?

This is because Play-Doh encourages the use of fine motor skills and encourages children to use their imagination. Using simple tools like cookie cutters or plastic-ware, kids can cut the Play-Doh and learn about shapes. My 4-year old loves rolling it into “ropes” and forming letters. It’s also an amazing tool for teaching colors. Combine two colors to make a new one, and see the look of wonderment in your child’s eyes! The possibilities are endless!

Right now Play-Doh is inviting parents and their kids to put on their chef hats and thinking caps to work together to create a fun, imaginative Play-Doh “recipe” that could win a makeover for both their playroom at home and at school. Parents can visit www.ReadyGoPlayDoh.com to upload a photo of their child’s finest food-inspired Play-Doh brand creation along with the “recipe” to make it.

The grand prize winner of the Ready, Go, Play-Doh $10,000 Creation Contest will receive a $5,000 playroom makeover as well as a $5,000 “Doh-nation” to their child’s school. Contest entries will be accepted through September 30, 2009 at which point 10 finalists will be chosen. On October 15, 2009 the finalists will be posted on ReadyGoPlayDoh.com and the public will vote on who receives the $10,000 prize!

The Ready Go Play-Doh website will also host daily giveaways with Play-Doh prizes, a gallery of creative contest entries and offers downloadable “recipes” for fun, original Play-Doh “snacks” like the ones below.

Speaking of snacks, Play-Doh sent us one of their newest food playsets to try out – The Play-Doh Burger Builder. We already have (and love!) the Play-Doh Ice Cream Shoppe, which I reviewed late last year, so my daughter and I were looking forward to trying something new.

The Play-Doh Burger Builder lets kids press, mold, twist and “cook up” their own colorful burgers and fries. The set includes a variety of molds – burger bun, patty, tomato, pickle, lettuce, onion – a press, plate, plastic knife, rolling pin, and a Twist-A-Chip tool. You can almost start using this straight out of the box. All I had to do was attach a press to the main gadget and put together the Twist-A-Chip tool, which took all of 30 seconds to do.

Also included in the box are 5 cans of Play-Doh compound – tomato red, pickle green, meaty brown, french fry yellow, and burger bun tan. Those aren’t the actual names of the colors themselves, but it’s what we like to call them. The cans are small, but allow for plenty of burger-making fun. Maya’s even being extra careful as to not mix the colors. Play-Doh’s not expensive, but I try to make it last as long as possible! If I notice it’s getting a little dry, I just fold a piece of a damp paper towel into a small square, and place it on top of the Play-Doh before we put it away. It’s as good as new when we pull it out again the next day!

I have to say I’m impressed by this playset. It’s hard to tell from the photos, but the textures from the different presses are so neat. From the grill marks on the patty, to the tiny seeds in the pickle and tomatoe slices, it’s all so realistic. From observing my daughter play, I find the Play-Doh Burger Builder to be much easier for her to use than the Ice Cream Shoppe. It’s been played with on a daily basis for almost a week now, and she’s still having a blast with it. That burger and fries below, she made all by herself. No help from me whatsoever! And she couldn’t have been more proud.

Here she is pressing out the burger and making french fries!

As it’s not attached to the Burger Builder itself, the Twist-A-Chip tool seems to me like an afterthought. It’s easy to use, but I’m not a big fan of it since the chips sort of fly out every which way. It got lots of laughs out of us, though, seeing as Maya thought it was hilarious to shoot chips at me!

Best for ages 3 and up, the Play-Doh Burger Builder retails for approximately $15.99 and can be found at Toys “R” Us, Wal-Mart, Amazon.com, and many other stores. For all the fun it brings, it’s entirely worth the price! Now we can have hamburgers and ice cream without even leaving the house! 😉

For more information about the Ready, Go, Play-Doh contest I mentioned above, please visit www.ReadyGoPlayDoh.com.