Are you looking for an easy homemade play dough recipe to make with your little ones? I’ve got you covered! We made this playdough the other week and it turned out great, and for someone who hates anything in the kitchen, it was super easy. This recipe made about 4 balls of playdough but if you are looking for more go ahead and add to it! Anyways, I’ll get right to it because I know we all hate having to scroll for the recipe.
Homemade Play Dough Recipe:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup of salt
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
2 tablespoons oil
1 cup HOT water
Food Coloring *Optional*
Directions:
Mix the ingredients together in a bowl and start to knead the dough. Then separate evenly into 4 small containers.
Add 5 drops of food coloring into the middle of the dough. This makes it a little less messy for you because you can then fold it in half before your start kneading it together.
You are all set! If the playdough seems too sticky just add some more flour or if it’s too bumpy just add more water! I also just store ours in ziplock bags to keep them from drying out and so far so good from the last few weeks.
Add learning to the mix!
While doing this activity with our toddler I wanted to add in some learning opportunities. Here are a few things that I did to do that:
Focused on vocabulary. While we were making the play dough I emphasized the words mix and pour. Each time I had an ingredient measured out I would let him pour it in and we’d say “POUR” together. We did the same with mix while he was helping mix the ingredients together.
Color Identification. I let our little man pick each color as we added the food coloring (that was a little too messy than I am comfortable with to let him do). I’d ask him “What color should we make now? Red? Yellow? Blue? Green?” Sometimes he would attempt the word and other times he would point and I would say “Okay GREEN next?” Also once we were done making the playdough I’d let him pick which color he wanted to play with next. Again, giving him the options for the colors while pointing to them and having him attempt the words.
Play Dough Mats. He was still a little small to try these (20 months at the time) but these would be great for 2 and 3-year-olds to practice their letters, numbers, and shapes while playing! You can grab them from my free resource library (along with a ton of other freebies!) to print at home! I’d suggest laminating or putting them in a ziplock baggy so you can save them for future playdough days.
I hope you and your little ones enjoy this activity at home together!
Ally
