We love making play dough at home! We love coming up with new color and scent combinations. We love visiting the baking aisle at the grocery store to find new extracts like vanilla, peppermint, banana, root beer and cherry. You should see my baking cupboards 😳We recently visited our favorite local bead shop – Shipwreck beads and picked up some animal and brightly colored plastic beads for bracelet making. Side note: Pipe cleaners + beads also make a great hand-eye coordination activity.
We decided to make play dough one night and instead of adding a color, I added lavender oil & translucent glitter to a double batch (see recipe below). What I thought would come out looking more like snow turned out to look a lot like sugar cookie dough. We rolled with it (literally) and dug out a rolling pin, fun cookie cutters and let our imaginations run wild! Soon enough the beads from our bracelet making turned into sprinkles for the play dough. Oliver even likes to put his masterpieces in his play kitchen oven to “bake”. Now the kids love grabbing the bins of dough and beads whenever they feel like making cookies. Hope you enjoy making some of your own at home with your littles!
Our favorite play dough recipe courtesy of the Hands on Children’s Museum
INGREDIENTS
1 c. all purpose flour
1 c. water
1/2 c. salt
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tbs. vegetable oil
optional: food coloring, non-toxic glitter, flavor extracts or essential oils for scents.
DIRECTIONS
Place all ingredients in 2 quart non-stick saucepan. Cook on medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture thickens and pulls from the sides of the pan. Within 5 minutes, it will form a smooth elastic ball. Remove from heat, let cool slightly and knead for 3 minutes. Store at room temperature in an airtight container.
