The Imagination Tree

Creative play and learning for kids

Strawberry Sparkle Play Dough

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To make this delicious play dough recipe you need vegetable oil, plain flour, salt, water, cream of tartar, food colouring (any colour), strawberry flavouring, glitter and sequins. If you don’t have cream of tartar you can substitute it for a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. 

 Here’s the recipe: (if you don’t have real measuring cups just choose any drinking cup and use that.)

Mix the following measurements into a bowl (so your child can have a go at mixing) or straight into the pan
* 3 cups of water
* 3 cups of plain flour
* 1.5 cups of salt
* 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil
* 2 tablespoons of cream of tartar (or a big squeeze of lemon juice)
* quite a few drops of colouring and strawberry flavouring

Put into a pan and heat it over a low heat, stirring occasionally so that it doesn’t stick. After about 5 minutes it will start to peel away from the sides and make a big ball in the middle of the pan. When it has all come together, take it out and knead it for a couple of minutes. It should smell fabulous!
At this stage I added a sprinkle of red glitter and a handful of sequins to make it sparkle.

 Mixing up the gloopy mess before being transferred to the pan.

And here is the cooked dough, kneaded and sprinkled through with glitter and sequins.

 Then have fun with it! We did some hacking into it with plastic cutlery, rolling with a rolling pin and cutting out with heart shaped cutters.

 I still have to help her with the rolling at this stage, but she likes to do the cutting out by herself.

 These heart shaped silicone cup-cake cases were useful for making little heart cakes in. She still loves making play dough cakes ever since we first did it together. Read about our first play dough cup cakes here. Adding simple, cheap things like paper cases, candles and decorations can transform a play dough session into a real opportunity for imaginative play together.

 There was a lot of counting going on as part of the role play baking. Today I heard 1,2,3,4 in the correct order for the first time.

 A dozen heart cakes for Valentine’s Day!

 Play dough is one of the very best activities for strengthening the small muscles in the hands, preparing young children for using scissors, paintbrushes and eventually writing.

 And a giant heart cake for daddy when he gets home.

This is the first occasion where she hasn’t tried to eat (or at least lick!) the play dough, even though it smelt so delicious. At nearly two and a half we are finally making progress 🙂

This activity is good for:
* creative development
* fine motor skills
* using the senses
* talking about sizes, counting, shapes
* knowledge and understanding of the world (recipes, cooking, change in materials)

This idea is shared at:

We Play and abc button

Comments

  1. Rachael says

    Looks like a lot of fun. I have made lemon playdough before and it smelt wonderful.
    Thanks for this idea I will try and make some over the weekend for my girls x

  2. Mommy Sarah says

    Following over from Show and Tell! I LOVE the Strawberry Playdough! My 3.5 year old was just looking with me and wanted to make it right away! My two attempt at homemade playdough though ends up with super sticky dough the 2nd day. Any advice? It was basically the same recipe as you used. The last batch we made was with mint flavoring, green food coloring, and lots of purple glitter! I really love the cupcake idea, we are doing that for sure next we make playdough!!
    http://musingsofmysahmlife.blogspot.com/

  4. Anna @ The Imagination Tree says

    Mmmm, lemon and chocolate flavours sound fabulous too! Fiona, I followed that link to the chocolate box play dough and I just have to try it! Brilliant idea.

    Sarah, I’m not sure what to suggest. That has happened to my dough before but only after I have had it stored for way too long in an air-tight container (think 6 months or so!) Do you add the cream of tartar? Maybe try an extra half cup of flour? Try this recipe above as it is the best one I have used (and I have tried a fair few over the years now!) Hope it works for you.

  5. Pam says

    This looks like great fun! We haven’t made playdough cupcakes before…I think we may need to try this SOON! 🙂 Thanks for sharing!

  16. Anonymous says

    So nice to see these great inspiring ideas and different ways to be creative with children! thanks for sharing!