The Imagination Tree

Creative play and learning for kids

Snow Dough Recipe for Winter Sensory Play!

by

Make some gloriously glittery snow dough for some wondrous sensory play this winter!

 Do you love cloud dough already? Me too! It’s so soft and silky and yet can be moulded loosely into shapes. Best of all, it can be made form just 2 ingredients! So now that it’s winter time I wanted to have a go at making some SNOW dough instead, based on the same simple recipe. And it’s SO easy, bright white and even crunches between your fingers like snow! We experimented and it worked!

Recipe for Snow Dough:

2 cups corn flour (corn starch in US)
1/3 to 1/2 of a cup vegetable oil
3-4 tablespoons silver glitter

[You can also use baby oil, which makes it smell and feel even nicer, but do NOT use with under 3s or any child who may put it in their mouth as it is dangerous if ingested. We stick to vegetable oil just incase!]

This recipe does not create a huge amount of snow dough,  just enough to cover the base of a washing up bowl by about 2 inches. If you want more for a larger scale sensory tub, then increase the quantities accordingly.




The girls made this nearly independently as it is so easy to do. Just mix the ingredients together with a spoon until combined, then use fingers to rub the oil right into the flour until its completely integrated. It should feel smooth, slightly damp and will take a form if moulded.
They added their toy polar bears and some large chalk rocks and used their imaginations to create a fantastic Arctic small world scene. We had a go at forming some snow balls in our hands and the dough took the shape well. We piled them up then they threw them at the bears for a game of snow ball fights!

Tip: This can get messy if played indoors, so use a large drop cloth or old table cloth under the tub to make cleaning up easier!

What they are learning as they play:
Sensory: exploring through sensory investigation, learning new descriptive language
Literacy: story telling, vocabulary development
Science/ Knowledge & Understanding of the World: combining materials, recipes, geography and habitats
Creativity: imaginative play, forming sculptures
Maths: counting out measurements

Cakie: 4.2
Pop: 2.8
Bean: 9 mos

See Also:
Cloud Dough Seaside Play
Pink Cloud Dough Cup Cakes

Comments

  3. Arlee says

    Oh My Gosh!!! You are genius, my friend! Pinning and sharing right now!!! Ohhhhh, and you KNOW i’m gonna make a batch of this!

  7. The Morris Family says

    We just made this up today and my boys loved it! The most calm evening we have had in a long time 🙂 Do I need to store this in an air-tight container or will it be ok to leave it out?

  10. Becca Lee says

    Just found this today via Pinterest… I have a sister-in-law with a special needs son (loves sensory play) who moved to Arizona. He misses the snow like crazy! I’m thinking of whipping up a batch and mailing it. Will it hold up, do you think?

  12. missusjen says

    That’s fantastic. We have a lot of Winter-themed Lego and put it all out on the sideboard at Christmas – this’ll be perfect to sit it on (with a big plastic sheet covering the sideboard first!).

    Thank you 🙂

  15. Gilly says

    We just made this with fantastic results!! We used a big blue tray and mixed blue and silver glitter, we found some pinecones and the kids spent ages crumbling the snow over them after a long lovely play doing other things. Absolutely glorious to play with!

  18. Anne says

    Looks so fun – will be making with my son’s first grade class. Have you tried leaving creations out to dry? Does the oil harden or does it stay crumbly?

  19. Anonymous says

    I can’t wait to do this with my nursery class on Monday!!! If I times the ingredients by 4 do you think it’ll fill the bottom of a builders tray?

  20. Anonymous says

    Take care. We tried this at our group in a village hall. It went every where leaving greasy footprints all over the floor. It builds up on children’s shoes and gets very slippery. I will try it again at home where I have more control on the children and the snow dough.

  23. Amanda says

    Great Idea!! My 3 year old is obsessed with snow…but we live in FL 🙁 I just made this for him and he is in heaven playing away in the snow!

  28. Anonymous says

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    I have been experimenting with play dough recipes again recently for the children I nanny for. Ive never met a kid who doesn’t love all of the wonderful things you can do with play dough. And now I have so many more ideas thanks to your blog.

    Thanks so much for sharing!

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