Finding Dory Play Date Ideas [Great for Birthday Parties too!]

Whether you’re looking for fun indoors or out, I came up with some great Finding Dory Play Date ideas to keep your kids excited for the upcoming Pixar movie.

This post about how to have a Finding Dory Play Date was inspired by the Step2 Finding Dory Water Table, which I was sent in exchange for my review and honest opinion. I am a Step2 Ambassador and am partnering with Step2 for the following review. This post may contain affiliate links.

I have been looking forward to a Finding Nemo™ sequel, well, since the credits rolled on Finding Nemo. When I first heard about Finding Dory a couple of years ago, I was ecstatic. My girls have been just as excited as me, which is the reason that jumping and squealing commenced when our Step2 Finding Dory™ Swim & Swirl Water Table arrived.

Unfortunately here in Tennessee we’ve been experiencing snow like we’re not used to. The week our water table arrived we had over 6 inches of snow and as I type we’re sitting inside warm [thankfully!] and looking out to see another 3 inches on the ground. Although the snow is beautiful, it definitely puts a bit of a delay on playing outside, especially in water!

So I did what any Mom would do – I brought the snow inside and put it right into our Finding Dory water table! Actually, snow isn’t the only substance they’ve played with in the water table. I was even brave enough to fill it up with water for them to play inside for a bit too.

The splashing that kept happening reinforced the idea that water tables are really meant for outside play, but I was determined to make sure they enjoyed the water table now instead of having to wait a few more months for Spring.

This isn’t the first time that I’ve thought of filling our water table with something other than water. Last year, we made Moon Dough and the year before we had a fun Dinosaur Dig with sand.

Those two ideas are still a bit messy for indoor play, so that’s when I got the idea to make an ocean out of water beads! Water beads are those fun little balls that grow in size when they’re soaked in water. They’re bouncy, kind of wet feeling, and complete fun for kids and you simply cannot beat the deal on these water beads – our favorite!

Whether you’re looking for Finding Dory crafts and activities for your children or are planning to invite a few of their friends over for a play date, I’ve got some fun additions to a Finding Dory Water Bead Ocean.

Finding Dory Fish Bowl Craft

My girls are obsessed with arts and crafts. Give them paper, glitter glue, and a stack of markers and they’ll keep busy for hours. I knew they would love a fun and creative Finding Dory craft so I put together this super simple Fish Bowl idea for them.

The only supplies we needed were blue and white foam sheets and contact paper. Sophia is quite the little artist so she gladly drew a Dory and Nemo, along with coral and seaweed, for the fish bowls. We had a few glitter fish foam stickers in our craft drawer that they added too.

The Finding Dory Fish Bowl Craft turned out super cute and they’ve both proudly displayed their fish bowls in their room.

Finding Dory Snack Cups

What’s a Play Date without a themed snack? That’s exactly what I thought anyways and came up with these super easy snack cups. Since our theme is Finding Dory, we stuck to the idea of hiding Dory in all of our activities… she hid in the water beads, she was hiding in our Fish Bowl Craft, and now we’re hiding her [aka fish gummies] in our snack cups!

I made two different types of snack cups – made with Jell-O and pudding. Since Sophia is allergic to dairy, she had the option of a blue ocean Jell-O snack cup and I colored the Cheesecake pudding with blue food coloring to make it an ocean too! A few graham cracker crumbs on top made it a perfect ocean for Dory to hide in.

These are best served soon after they’re made as the Swedish Fish started to melt into the Jell-O and pudding in the cups we left in the refrigerator overnight.

What other Step2 products would your child love to go along with a Finding Dory Play Date?