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Thursday, March 6, 2014

Shamrock Play Dough


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We LOVE play dough! Who doesn't? We especially love making our own because it's a fun way to learn about kitchen math and science! I encourage my kids to participate in making the play dough with me and for the most part they do all the measuring and stirring. And by now, they pretty much know all the ingredients and how much to use. We make a new batch for every holiday and with Saint Patrick's Day coming up, we definitely had to make a batch of green play dough!

To make your own play dough, you will need:
2 cups of plain flour
1/2 cup of salt  
2 tablespoons of cream of tartar
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
3/4-1 cup of boiling water
Food colouring - gel or liquid
Green glitter (optional) 
Along with a bowl, something to mix with (we used a fork) and a surface to knead the play dough on. 

Please be advised that the food colouring does sometimes stain hands and the surface it is being played on. 

Mix all your dry ingredients together first. Then add the vegetable oil and combine it with the dry ingredients. 


Add your food colouring to the boiling water (we used Wilton's green food colouring gel) and stir it up before adding it to the dry ingredients. This is the part for adults, as young children can accidentally burn themselves on the water. 


Slowly add in the water and stir it until it reaches the consistency you like. You may not need all of the water. You basically want it to be moldable and once it is you'll want to knead it with your hands for a few minutes.


We also decided to add some green glitter and kneaded it in.


Spider-Bean and Munchkin really loved working on their scissor cutting skills (which pairs well with play dough)! They enjoyed cutting off all the shamrocks on the plastic bead necklace so they could use them in their play dough.


They spent a good 20 minutes cutting off each individual shamrock and were actually sad when they ran out... But then I brought out the play dough invitation to create tray!


I added in green and gold sequins (circles and green hearts), shamrock confetti, the shamrock beads and green cut up pipe cleaners, with the ball of green play dough in the middle. We had chosen the light green colour specifically for the play dough so everything else would stand out.


I showed them how to make a clover using the green hearts.


Spider-Bean decided to press the shamrock into the play dough.



Munchkin made a cute shamrock garden.


He poked around the edges and said they were holes. (If you watch Dinosaur Train and are familiar with Don, he's the reason why my son is obsessed with putting holes in stuff.)


That is one tall clover growing out of the shamrock garden!


Spider-Bean used some of the pipe cleaners to create a couple tracks in her clump of play dough.


Meanwhile Munchkin was making shamrock tea. Yum!


He even added a straw.


And pretended to take a sip. Too cute!


I gave them a few simple tools to use, as well, including scissors and plastic pretend play knives.


Mmm, shamrock soup. It looks very yummy!


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Please note: This play dough contains glitter and should not be included in a batch if you intend for it to be "edible" and toddler safe. 

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