When I first began to teach preschool I was advised to be sure to include lots of play dough in my lesson plans. Best advice ever! With the right little tools– plastic cookie cutters, rolling pins, molds etc.- my little students have enjoyed hours of learning fun. Rather than buying it from a toy store, though, I would suggest that you make your own. It is so easy to do and you can make as much as you want!
There are many homemade playdough recipes out there. I have tried a few and so far the one I like the best is the “classic” play dough recipe, using cream of tartar.
Here’s how I made it:
Classic Homemade Playdough
1 cup bleached all purpose flour
1/4 cup salt
2 tsp. cream of tartar
2 T. cooking oil
1 cup water
food coloring
I doubled this to make larger quantities of each color for my preschool class.
- Combine water, oil and food coloring. Keep adding drops of food coloring to get the shade you want. Expect it to look a bit lighter, soon as the flour is added.
- Add salt, cream of tartar and flour. Stir till it is smooth and the consistency of cake batter.
- Add the batter to a saucepan and heat on medium heat, stirring constantly. Eventually the thickening batter will pull away from the sides until it is in a lump.
- Scoop it out of the pan onto a plate to cool.
- When cool, store in a plastic container with lid or seal in a Ziploc bag. The play dough should stay fresh for up to 6 months of play.
Tip 1: Spray your saucepan with cooking spray before heating. It helps prevent sticking.
Tip 2: Spray the plate you will be cooling the play dough on with cooking spray, to prevent sticking.
Play dough shapes made with cookie cutters.
Love homemade playdough?
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