A Play-Doh set for someone just starting out. Everything sits in a yellow picnic basket with a smiling face, a blue lid in two hinged halves and orange handles. What comes out goes back in afterwards, so the basket is the storage box as well.
In the basket are six tubs of modelling clay - four of 57 g and two of 28 g, 284 g in total - and twelve tools: four cutters, two rollers, an apple roller stamp, a ladybird stamp, a decorating tool, a knife and two plates. With them comes a double-sided play mat, with a picnic scene on one side and examples to copy on the other.
The play is the picnic itself: cutting out little sandwiches and stacking them, pressing an apple out of its mould, arranging everything on the plates and packing the basket full to pretend you are setting off. The shapes are big and simple enough for small hands that are still practising.
The box states 3+. A first clay set is a classic present for a preschooler, and the basket keeps it a thing in its own right after tidying up, instead of loose tubs in a drawer.
