Give this beautiful, pure white snow play dough a go with taste-safe ingredients if you are looking for endless fun of winter-inspired sensory play for your little one!
We've been getting so much snow recently and home made play dough is so easy to make, so it was a given that this week, that's what we were doing - Snowman Play Dough. Prior to this activity, we had made a snowman in the garden called Frosty and it was all Arabella could talk about, so it was the perfect opportunity to whip this up!
Play dough is always a hit in our house and keeps Arabella entertained for a good amount of time. It's something that she likes to come back to throughout the day. So I like to set up a little table for her with a tray of play dough and some other resources to decorate the play dough with. I teamed it with some ribbons, goggly eyes, pipe cleaners and pom moms. She loved this! Any little bits that she can mess with and push/poke into the dough immediately grab her attention.
For this activity I used my regular play dough recipe that honestly makes the softest play dough ever, however I swapped flour for cornflour! The cornflour will give you the desired pure, white coloured snow that I was looking for. The key ingredients for all my play dough that I do recommend using are cream of tartar and boiling water (this part obviously needs to be done by the adult for safety reasons).
What you need:
1 cup of cornflour
1/2 cup of salt
1 tbsp of oil (I use vegetable oil)
2 tsp of cream of tartar
Boiling water
Recipe:
Mix together the following ingredients in a bowl - 1 cup of cornflour, 1/2 cup of salt, 1 tbsp of oil and 2 tsp of cream of tartar.
Add boiling water in slowly (adult only job), mixing at the same time until you get the right consistency.
If it's too sticky just add some more cornflour in.
Knead together to get a lovely, soft texture.
Leave to cool.
Store play dough in an air tight food bag or wrap it in cling film. This prevents it from drying out and going mouldy and will last for weeks!
Benefits of Play Dough Sensory Play
Play dough is an excellent activity for developing children's fine motor skills, finger dexterity and hand eye coordination. We have play dough out most weeks in my classroom too to develop these skills and every child seems to love rolling, squishing, pinching, squeezing and smacking the dough! Plus, it provides opportunities for your child to use their imagination and be creative when thinking of what and how to design! It develops communication and language whilst talking about their creations, materials used and colours. When using a home made recipe, it is also great to help your child understand the world through home baking and mimicking every day actions and events, and exploring what happens when you mix the ingredients and how they change. It can also be a very calming activity for your child. Even I, as an adult, find it so therapeutic to press and squeeze the dough. So if you were going to choose any of these activities to do at home with your preschooler then I definitely recommend this one! Enjoy a cuppa whilst they spend some time in the ever entertaining play dough pit of exploration!
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