Homemade Play Dough

Play Dough

I just finished a week- long craft camp with kids. One of their favorites was making our own play dough. It really is simple to make and provides kids with hours of fun. This can even be an activity at a child’s birthday party, where each child gets to make their own color.

For camp, I had a great assortment of food coloring to choose from. I used paste type food coloring I got at a local craft store. These are food grade dyes. To use them, each child would grab a handful of the plain dough. I provided the kids with disposable gloves to wear for this.  Once they picked a color, I would dip a toothpick in the dye and spread it across the surface of thew dough. Then the fun begins. The kids kneaded the dough to mix the color in. If it wasn’t bright enough, I would add more color. Or they mixed colors to get something just their own.

Make sure that kids, and adults, who are kneading dough are wearing gloves. Trust me on this.

Once the dough was all colorful, I provided the kids with plastic containers with lids that they could store their play dough in.  They were also encouraged to trade and share.

I explained to the kids that the dough was non toxic. That didn’t mean they should eat it, but there was nothing in the dough that would harm them, if they did. Then I told them again not to eat it. 🙂

So here is the recipe.

 

Play Dough

1 c. flour

1 c. water

1/2 c. salt

2 t. cream of tartar

1 T. salad oil

food coloring

Combine all ingredients, except the coloring in a saucepan and cook, stirring often until mixture pulls away from the side of the pan. Cool slightly, then knead in food coloring. I actually made several batches the day before and the kids were still able to knead in the food coloring. I just stored the dough in an air tight container overnight. Recipe can be doubled. Store in airtight container.

A Rainbow of Dough

Daisies made with Play Dough

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is another craft we made with some of our play dough.

Q-tip Daisies

Q-tips

Yellow Play Dough

Green pipe cleaners

 

Cut q-tips in half. Roll a piece of play dough into a ball shape. Flatten to form the middle of the daisy. Stick q-tips all around to form the petals. Shape a pipe cleaner for look like a leaf. Wrap around another pipe cleaner- to form the stem and stick in the play dough.

 

 

 

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