Alphabet Playdough Activities to Learn Korean Letters

Fun Korean alphabet playdough activities

I have so many fond memories of my children learning Korean through alphabet playdough activities when they were little. Even if your students are older, there are so many wonderful ways to teach kids Korean with playdough.

Although I can hardly speak Korean, I try to show my children that I care about this part of their heritage by preparing simple, memorable activities.

If you’re raising multilingual children, you can also try these alphabet playdough activities in English. If you’re wondering how to apply these ideas to non-alphabet languages, check out our Chinese playdough learning activities here.

Benefits of alphabet playdough activities

Playdough is easy to make and inexpensive to buy. It’s such an amazing sensory experience for kids, and it doesn’t make too much of a mess! Here are just a few incredible benefits of playdough:

Playing Korean alphabet activities with homemade blue jello play dough

Fine motor skills: kneading, rolling, pinching, ripping – little hands get stronger and more capable while experimenting with playdough
Attention span: Because playdough is an open-ended toy, a child can spend a long time focusing on observing and exploring the material.
Relaxation: Squishing playdough can be a very calming mindfulness activity for children.
Real-life math: Through cutting and creating various shapes, children put basic math skills into action.
Language development: The more fun you’re having, the more encouraged you will feel to speak the minority language. If you want to take it a step further, try the Korean alphabet activities in this article to encourage literacy.

Chalk Academy is reader-supported. Some of the links are affiliate links. When you buy something through an affiliate link, we may earn a very small commission at no additional cost to you. More details here.

Fun Korean alphabet activities with playdough

Here are some ways that my children have explored the Korean alphabet with playdough. I hope your kids can have a blast with some of these activities!

Make Korean alphabet letters

Fun alphabet playdough activities - shaping and cutting colorful Korean Hangul letters

Kids can have fun rolling playdough into Hangul alphabet shapes. After my kids laid out their Korean letters, we made up a game that helped us remember the alphabet sounds. One person would say the phonetic Hangul sound and the other person would smash or cut up the letter.

Although my younger child learned the Korean Hangul alphabet through Montessori colors (red = consonants, blue = vowels), my daughter wanted rainbow Korean playdough letters!

Playdough alphabet stamping

Teach Korean with alphabet playdough activities - Hangul letter stamping — *Korean word 하트 (hateu / heart)*

If you have Korean alphabet toys, you can turn them into playdough stamps!

In the photo above, my children imprinted the Korean word 하트 (hateu / heart). This alphabet playdough activity is a great chance to practice reading Korean out loud.

Alphabet letter matching

Teach Korean - Hangul playdough stamping and DIY puzzle

After stamping the Hangul letters, you can take things a step further by turning the imprints into a letter-matching game. For an extra challenge, this can be a word-matching game. Can you find 나비 (nabi/butterfly) in the above photo?

Recommended: Best Korean Gift Guide for Kids

Hangul letter carving

If you have a child that’s resistant to writing with pencil and paper, try poking and prodding letters and shapes in playdough.

With a toothpick or butter knife, you can carve Korean letters and words into flattened playdough. This alphabet playdough activity is really as simple as it sounds!

Fill up the Korean alphabet board

Teach Korean with Play Dough - Hangul Korean alphabet wood tracing board

If you’re looking to maximize Korean learning tools at home, you can use a Hangul tracing board for alphabet playdough activities.

A Korean alphabet board like this one is not necessary for learning the language. However, filling up the letter grooves with playdough and other small objects can feel so satisfying. After the Hangul playdough letters are formed, carefully lift each letter off of the wooden board.

Then your child to put back the playdough letters on the wooden board like a puzzle. While searching for the missing letters, you can practice saying the phonetic sounds while putting them on the board.

Korean alphabet sound games

Last but not least, mastering the phonetic sounds is the most important part of learning the alphabet.

You can gamify teaching by saying the Hangul sound while your child shapes the letter from playdough (or vice versa).

If you have siblings or classmates who are feeling competitive, make it a race! See you can make the playdough letter fastest. Everyone’s a winner when you’re having fun learning.