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Homemade Play Dough

November weekday events playdo DP

My family enjoys the sensory pleasures of homemade play dough at least once a week, on these wintry days.  We make it for my oldest daughter’s school (at their request) but we enjoy it at home first.  It is a marvelously engaging activity for a vast array of ages and personalities. Through our countless experiments, my daughters Kiri (2 years), Magnolia (5 years) have arrived upon the following homemade play dough recipe as our favorite- because of the process, texture and longevity.

Magnolia and Kiri’s Favorite Homemade Play Dough

Sparkly Bergamot with Sweet Orange

Ingredients:
1 cup of bleached, white flour
1/2 cup salt (regular table salt–not fancy large-grained.  Fine textured salt gives dough a beautiful smooth texture)
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 cup water
1 tablespoon oil  (we love a canola coconut blend)

Optional:

All to desired ascetic tastes:
Coloring agents  – conventional and natural food colorings, Kool-aid packets, or powdered tempera. We love powdered paint as you can make the dough very vivid.

Glitter – fine grain works best and stays in the dough – larger grain ends up all over
Essential oils or spices – we love the orange and bergamot mentioned – alone or together  – we also enjoy pine, lavender, lemon and lime.
Mix ingredients in a pot on the stove, heat and stir consistently on medium-low. Around 8 minutes dough should ball up and no longer be gluey. Remove from the heat and cool. Once cool, make a ball and use your fingers to create a small hole/ nest at the top  – carefully place coloring agent inside hole.  Pinch nest closed and  knead in dye.  For added joy knead in fine grain glitter in same manner as dye – to desired sparkle.  For more sensory enjoyment add essential oils or spices with same nesting technique.
*You can keep this in an airtight container in the refrigerator for a couple of months.
Notes:
While it is a stovetop recipe – the pot does not get very hot so Magnolia can stir it on the stove with me.  Both girls enjoy watching the texture change at the stove and working with the warm dough (when cool enough).  While the dough is warm coloring takes very nicely.  They also LOVE aiding in the metamorphoses of plain dough (which is still awesome to use) into one that is vivid, sparkly and fragrant.
Get your make on!

Corinne Amato is the Co-Creator of Arty Garden Party, a transformative approach to making art in community.