Lavender Play Dough

Today I made some lavender play dough. I used my usual play dough recipe:

• 2 1/2 Cups Flour
• 1/2 Cup Salt
• 1 Packet Koolaid (unsweetened)
• 1 Teaspoon Cream of Tartar

MIX dry ingredients well then add wet:

• 1 Cup Boiling Water
• 3 Tablespoons Oil

Stir together, let cool enough to handle, then knead until elastic. Add additional flour as needed if too sticky. Usually, this recipe doesn't need additional flour. Click on the link above for a printable recipe.

I used 1 packet each of lemonade and grape Koolaid to get the lavender color. The Koolaid doesn't add as much scent as it does color.

I then used my spice grinder to grind up 2 tablespoons of dried lavender flowers and added those to scent it as lavender. I don't like using lavender essential oil, as it can be a major skin irritant.* The flowers add the same scent without the intensity of the concentrated oils and potential allergic reactions.

I also provided dried lavender flowers for the children to add in to the play dough or play with as they chose.

I was surprised that they played with this play dough for the longest time as is, without getting a lot of toys out of our play dough bin. They just LOVED the smell of it and the sensory of the dough and dried lavender flowers.

*Note: Not all essential oils have irritation issues. Lavender and cinnamon essential oils are the most common to cause allergic reactions and skin irritations.
Tags: play doh, play dough, playdough, homemade playdoh, homemade, play, dough, doh, lavender, dried, flowers, art, sensory, sculpture, craft, fine motor, creative, expression, lavender playdough

Flesh Tone Play Dough Tutorial

• Non-Toxic
• Refrigerate for extended use, up to 6 months  
• Airtight container needed           

We have been having a BLAST with our Pumpkin Pie Play Dough, and have made a dozen colors with our play dough recipe, but no flesh tone ones! As we enter into the Thanksgiving and holiday season, we usually enter into additional discussions about multicultural aspects to our national and world population, and to our own multicultural histories.

Since I was experimenting, and figured most of you would want to have more than one shade, I made only quarter batches and the recipes to match. If you want a larger batch, you can double, triple or quadruple the instructions, or follow the directions for the basic play dough recipe and simply quadruple the color changes.

Our play dough recipe is based upon Koolaid to provide the scent and color, I began with that. However, the store is not currently carrying the true red cherry. I found the watermelon-cherry contained a lot of blue that made the ratio off. However, it did provide a nice pinky peach flesh tone. 

While what was suppose to be brown, equal parts yellow/red/blue came out more of a gray/blue, after I added an additional 1/2 teaspoon of yellow, we can use that for sick or elderly people and discuss why they lack color and may look blue [lack of movement/circulation/blood flow/oxygen in their systems]. I couldn't see any hope for creating brown out of the Koolaid without knowing the ratio of colors within them.

KOOLAID RECIPE-Pinky Peach Color
3/4 C Flour
1/8 C Salt
3/8 teaspoon Yellow Koolaid
1/4 teaspoon Red Koolaid
1/8 teaspoon Blue Koolaid
1/4 teaspoon Cream of Tartar
*MIX DRY INGREDIENTS WELL BEFORE ADDING WET!!
1/4 C Boiling water
2 t Canola/vegetable oil

Stir to combine well, when cool enough, kneed with hands to smooth and elastic consistency. 

So, I moved on to liquid food coloring. Surprisingly, this was not for sale in my grocery store. I looked because I thought I may run out, and really, I can't ever have too much miscellaneous stuff on hand. I went with the standard ratio for TAN, which came out a good flesh-toned color. I then tried BROWN and it came out very similar, only SLIGHTLY browner and darker. Then I tripled the amount of color for BROWN to see if I could get it darker. Again, I seemed to have too much blue in it, even though I knew the ratio to be correct, so added in some more yellow and red. It went from bluish to greenish, but there are a lot of olive skinned people out there, so I felt pretty happy about that one. It looks brown on its own, it just looks olive next to the other brown ones. I also added in a few drops of peppermint or almond extract to make it smell yummy.

FOOD COLORING RECIPE
3/4 C Flour
1/8 C Salt
1/4 teaspoon Cream of Tartar
Mix.
1/4 C Boiling water
2 teaspoons Canola/vegetable oil
Food Coloring [color combinations below]
4 drops of clear extract: peppermint, almond, lemon, strawberry, etc.

Stir to combine well, when cool enough, kneed with hands to smooth and elastic consistency. 

*ADD FOOD COLORING TO WATER AND MIX WELL BEFORE ADDING TO OTHER INGREDIENTS!

TAN: 3 drops yellow, 2 drops red, 1 drop blue
BROWN [darker tan]: 3 drops EACH yellow, red, blue
OLIVE/BROWN: 10 drops yellow, 8 drops red, 6 drops blue

So then I moved on to the spices. I have made a cinnamon salt dough every Christmas to make ornaments for gifts, smells DIVINE on the tree, but never play dough. While in the spice cabinet, I decided we needed some red-tinged Native Americans and maybe some copper skinned Hispanics. The spices seemed to absorb the water more, so I had to up that amount for these.

SPICE PLAY DOUGH
5/8 C Flour
1/8 C Spice
1/8 C Salt
1/4 teaspoon Cream of Tartar
*MIX DRY INGREDIENTS WELL BEFORE ADDING WET!!
1/4 C + 2 teaspoons Boiling Water
2 teaspoons Canola/vegetable oil

Stir to combine well, when cool enough, kneed with hands to smooth and elastic consistency. 

*Some children may have skin sensitivity to some spices, 

including chili pepper and cinnamon. 

Watch out for that!

The cocoa came out a rich dark brown, the cinnamon a slightly lighter brown, the chili powder ended up more for freckly sunburned red-heads rather than Native Americans, which works, and the taco seasoning came out pretty good for those with a more red/orange cast to their complexion. 

My mind continued to race, and I contemplated food!! 

One time use only! 

Whirling up some animal crackers in my Magic Bullet and using them for a tan, or graham crackers. 1/8 C Applesauce for some of the liquid, 1/8 C peanut butter for some of the dry and reduce the liquid by a teaspoon, ketchup/mustard & blue food coloring in the TAN ratio above, dark balsamic vinegar or salad dressing in place of the liquid, brown sugar in the spice recipe, molasses in place of some liquid and reduce the dry some, pumpkin puree, BBQ sauce, terriyaki sauce...

But I'm out of time. Japanese festival to get to with the family. Those will have to wait for another day...

NOTES: 

• It is SUPER IMPORTANT to mix wet and dry colorants with their counterparts before adding to the other. It's not that they won't be incorporated and color, but it will take a TON of kneeding on your part to get the color consistent throughout. 
• The result should have the consistency of...PLAY DOH! Seriously, if you make this a few times you'll just begin to KNOW when it is perfect. The recipe is pretty fool proof if followed exactly, but once you start messing around with it, then some tweeking may be needed. It should be soft, squishy, not sticky, not crumbly. It should easily roll into a smooth ball, and when that ball is flattened, the edges should stay smooth and not crumble or separate. If too sticky, add a little more flour and if too dry, add a little more water, and kneed it in WELL before adding any more. 
• If you want to tweek the color of a finished batch using Koolaid, mix together the ratio of colors you want, add just enough water to liquify and kneed into play dough a little at a time until satisfied. If necessary, add additional flour as needed.
• If you want to tweek the color of a finished batch using liquid colors, mix the colors together first and kneed into the playdough, add additional flour as needed.
• I just use the 1/4 C measuring cup rather than my liquid measuring cup for the water. The recipe comes out fine and it's just easier for me.
• For a blush color, stick a toothpick into red food coloring and swirl into the water to just tinge it to your desired tone, or use just an 1/8 teaspoon of red Koolaid.

For Tags: play, dough, play doh, flesh, tone, tones, koolaid, spice, home made, home, made, no cook, sensory, mat, multicultural, skin, brown, tan, peach, play dough, flesh tone play dough, flesh tone play doh, playdoh, making, craft, art, tutorial, daycare, care, child, preschool, kindergarten, lesson, smell, scent, color, coloring, theme, unit

Pumpkin Pie Play Dough

Made up a batch of this YUMMMMY smelling play dough this afternoon. Miss H helped determine how much spice was needed for it to smell JUST RIGHT. Her momma had a a good sniff as well. I think this will be a huge hit tomorrow!

My usual recipe, plus some spices and coloring...

MIX DRY

2 1/2 C flour

1/2 C salt

1 t cream of tartar

1 T cinnamon

1 t pumpkin pie spice

MIX WET

2 C boiling water

3 T canola oil

15 drops yellow food coloring

5 drops red food coloring

Combine wet and dry. Kneed a few time to get to elastic consistency. Add flour as needed if too wet. 

They like the smell.

They like the feel.

Even the big kid couldn't keep his hands off of it! 

Tags: pumpkin, pie, play, doh, dough, art, sensory, fall, autumn, kids, child, childcare, daycare, preschool, care, fine motor, cinnamon, kids, spice, playdoh, theme, unit 

Kool Aid Play Dough, non-toxic

Woo Hoo! Love, love, love, LOVE 

(you get it but I could go on) 

this new play dough recipe!

Kool-Aid Play Dough Recipe

2 1/2 Cups         Flour
1/2 Cups            Salt
2 Packets           Koolaid (unsweetened)
1 teaspoon        Cream of Tartar
2 Cups               Water-  boiling
3 Tablespoons    Oil


PRINT

You can add essential oils for scent, glitter, sand, flower petals or other sensory items to the basic dough. Beware of essential oils that can cause skin reactions. A list is available HERE. Items that can spoil, such as flower petals, will reduce the shelf life of the dough.

I hadn't made play dough in...well...years. I really liked the cooked one I did, but it was messy, produced inconsistent results, and it didn't last long at all. This one came out PERFECT the first time, was easy, went together smoothly and quickly, has a great consistency, and the kids love it as well.

Play dough is such an important activity, working hand-eye coordination, fine motor, logic/reasoning, physics, creative expression, sensory, and even gross motor. Given that we have three large bins of play dough toys, I was so pleased to finally come across a recipe that made it possible to routinely use them.

I love that it is totally non-toxic and not harmful if swallowed. That was one of the reasons we hadn't done playdough in a long time, the little ones just wouldn't keep stuff out of their mouths. YES, the little girls did try it, but only one taste, so it must not be that appetizing. 

(Update from original post: G fell in love with the taste of it. His mom asked him what he wanted for dinner a couple times and he said, "Play dough!" We are working on that.)

 I only had Tropical Punch on hand, but it made more than enough for the 6 children to play with. I will be getting other flavors quickly to try out! When they are a little older, or I'm certain they won't eat it, I'll try adding glitter. 

Even my home-schooling tween had to get in on the action! 

I saw something similar packaged up as class gifts, both completed and as a make-it kit which I think are wonderful ideas...made up for younger children and as a kit for older ones to do with adult assistance, as it does use boiling water. 

We made this orginal batch on 11/30/11and it's been stored in the fridge since. I always have the children wash their hands prior to playing with it to keep it relatively sanitary, and it is STILL, 3 months later, like I just made it.

G doesn't eat it any more. That took some effort, though. 

Must be tasty.

3/8/12 We have FINALLY made some more...

Lemon Lime Koolaid

Not much scent, and the green is more intense than in these pictures.

and Orange Koolaid

some scent, more of a peach color

J's creation..."Phillip"

Tags: play dough, playdoh, craft recipe, no-cook, preschool, pre-k, toddler, preschooler, craft, art, sensory, childcare, daycare, homeschool, edible, non-toxic