Children love to make things and they love it even more if it's something messy. The ideas in this article do not have to be totally messy, but please make sure you have a drop cloth under the table because a mess is usually inevitable with some of these doughs. Only one of these is edible but the rest are still awesome to make and create with!
White Bread Dough
2 Slices of White Bread
1 Tablespoon of Elmer's Glue
Tear the bread into crumbs. Mix in the glue. Use a fork to mix until all the bread is moistened. Knead until pliable. Dip your fingers into the water to make it more moldable. Dries in 3 days. Wet dough keeps for a month in an air-tight container in the fridge.
** This is a great dough to make little creatures out of. My children love to make little snowmen for my Mom's Christmas village. They also like to make polar bears, penguins and mice with this. It can be painted when it's dry and because of the glue, it doesn't stink or mold. Maybe your child can make beads and then string them together for a nice Grandmother's Day gift! Make sure you are the one holding the stringing needle though unless your child is old enough. Another great idea for this dough is to make little things for dollhouses such as food pieces and decorative things.
No Cook Dough
1 Cup of Flour
3/8 Cup of Hot Water
3/8 Cup of Salt
Food Coloring (optional)
Combine the flour and salt. Add water and stir. Knead for about 5 minutes. If you are adding food coloring, do it now and work it in. Plastic gloves are also optional but great if you are using a dark color. Dries in 5 days. Stores for 1 week in an air-tight container in the fridge.
** This is a great dough and has a lot of uses! As long as the things made aren't too thick, it'll keep for a long time. Sometimes the thicker pieces tend to dry with bubbles and will crack eventually. This is a wonderful dough to use cookie cutters with. Maybe you could use an Angel cookie cutter. Make sure if you are going to hang them that you put a small hole in the top. How about doggie bone shapes? What a wonderful addition that would make on a holiday tree! Or you could even cut out some hearts to put atop Valentine's gifts. There are so many great uses for this dough! It can even be painted if you don't want to use food coloring. Trying smooshing several colors together to make a kaleidescope blend!
Play Clay
1 Cup of Flour
1/2 Cup of Salt
1/2 Teaspoon of Cream of Tartar
1 Cup of Water
1 Teaspoon of Oil
Food Coloring (optional)
Mix all ingredients together over medium heat. Stir constantly until it holds together. Dries in 3 days. Store in the fridge in an air-tight container for up to four weeks.
** This is almost exactly like Play-Doh. It's awesome to use in so many ways! We usually make up one big batch and then separate it to add colors. If you have a lot of little clear air-tight containers your child can see the colors. Talk to your child about what colors could be used to make things. Usually the back of the food coloring boxes will show you how to mix colors to get other colors. This could be used as a wonderful color lesson! This is a great pliable dough that can be used for a lot of things and it's totally re-usable for up to a month! If you are going to dry your children's creations, be careful that they are not too thick. They will crack if they aren't able to dry inside all the way.
Kool-Aid Dough
2 Cups of Flour
1/4 Cup of Salt
1 Tablespoon of Alum
1 Package of Kool-Aid (unsweetened)
1 Tablespoon of Oil
1 Cup of Water
Mix it all together. Dries in 4 days. Stores in the fridge in an air-tight container for up to four weeks.
** This is one of the easiest ones to make but it gets messy depending on what color Kool-Aid you are using. My kids like to use the "Magic" Kool-Aid because it actually changes colors as they mix it in. You can make a lot of colors with all the different flavors out there! This is a great dough to make decorations out of! Is your child attending a special birthday party? What a great gift he/she can make! Form the dough into flowers and poke a hole to put a string through! Make lots of beads and string them together for a beautiful one of a kind necklace! Make sure you ask your child what they want to make! You should make a special something for your child also.
Cornstarch Clay
1 Cup of Salt
1/2 Cup of Cornstarch
1/3 Cup of Water
1/4 Cup of Cold Water
Food Coloring (optional)
Heat salt and the 1/3 Cup of Water over medium heat for about 4 minutes. Stir until disolved. Remove from heat and add cornstarch and the cold water. You want to keep stirring until it has the consistency of mashed potatoes. Knead for a minute and then let cool. If it's sticky, work in more cornstarch. Add food coloring if you'd like. Dries in 4 days. Stores in an air-tight container for 2 weeks in the fridge.
** This is an awesome dough! It's great if you are going to use cookie cutters! Without food coloring, this dries perfectly white so it's wonderful to make all kinds of things with! You can even color the creations with markers when dry.
Play Clay Ornaments
2 Cups Baking Soda
1 Cup Cornstarch
1 1/4 Cup Water
Mix and cook over medium heat until it's like mashed potatoes. Put on a plate and cover with a damp cloth until cool. Roll out flat and cut out with cookie cutters. Put a hole in each for hanging later. Let them dry overnight. These can then be painted or colored.
** These are great and we make them several times during the year. Because there are so many wonderful cookie cutter shapes available, you can always find a use for these adorable ornaments. Here are some of our ideas! New Year's - We cut out babies and put in googlie eyes before they are dry. Then we decorate these with glitter glue with whatever year it is and pass them out to friends and family. Valentine's Day - We cut out several different size hearts. We usually personalize these with special friends names and we attach them to little bags of candy. St. Patrick's Day - We cut out various shamrock shapes and decorate them in an assortment of ways. These are great to decorate gift bags for parties. There are so many events, holidays and happenings to use these. These ornaments are great because you can push decorations down into the dough before it dries. You can also paint these or color them with crayons or markers.
Peanut Butter Clay
1 Cup Smooth Peanut Butter
1 1/2 Cups Powdered Milk
3 Tablespoons Honey
Please be careful with this dough and allergies. Some children cannot have the ingredients so please ask before making this dough with someone elses children.
Mix it all together in a bowl until smooth. Form into yummy shapes and gobble them up!
** My kids love to make this one. We use carrots, celery and raisins to help decorate. This is really good to make and eat! It's quite pliable but will get sticky after it's played with for a while. You can make mini PB&J's with this too! Just make a ball of the dough and poke a hole in the middle. Drop in a dabble of jelly and munch away.
I hope that you have enjoyed some of the wonderful doughs that you and your children can make together. Make sure that you are letting them do some of the work putting the dough together, depending on their ages. So much fun can be had on an otherwise boring day just by spending some quality time together making a mess :)
Until next time, stay clean and hug your precious little one...
Kimie Bringle ~ FourPoint Moms ~ http://kimie.fourpointmoms.com ~ New Hampshire ~ (603)382-1905 ~ fourpointkimie@comcast.net