How to Make Play Dough

No matter how many toys, games, movies, and friends your child has, every now and then it’s inevitable that they will come to you saying they are bored. While they are pretty good at keeping themselves entertained, sometimes they just get tired of the same old activities. To help you manage that, our team at The St Clare Group Childcares always come up with some ideas that will not only keep your child busy, but that will also help them develop certain skills, like their coordination and creativity, promoting healthy growth.

This play dough recipe is easy to follow and guarantees an afternoon full of fun. You can either have a no-rules approach, just letting the children free to create whatever their busy minds allow, or you can have a specific project in mind – new fridge magnets, fun jewellery, Christmas ornaments, or even party favours or decorations.

Our top tips are to get creative with colours and to make sure you knead the dough on a plastic board, so you don’t end up with a rainbow coloured wooden chopping board.

What you’ll need:

  • 3 cups of flour
  • 1 cup of salt
  • 1 tbsp. of oil
  • 1 cup of water
  • food colouring

How to do it:

  1. In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together and add oil.
  2. In a cup, add the food colouring to the water.
  3. Slowly add the coloured water to the mix, until you reach the desired consistency.
  4. To achieve the perfect play dough consistency, kneading is key. So get the kids involved and let the fun begin.

Things to note:

  • You can always scale this recipe up or down, depending on how much pay dough you need and how many different colours you want.
  • If you want to use the creations as ornaments, magnets, or jewellery, use a straw to poke any holes you might need, and then let the pieces air dry overnight, before finalising your project – glueing magnets or adding hooks and strings, for example.
  • If you have any leftover play dough, make sure you wrap it in cling wrap and keep it in an air-tight plastic container. This will keep the dough fresh for an extra day.

Want to decorate your play dough? Check out our 4 decoration ideas here!

At The St Clare Group, we encourage parents to carry out fun activities like this at home as it is a way of continuing the work we do at the centre with our learning programs. For more information on our learning programs, click here.