Monday, August 01, 2011

Something different- dirt playdough

I love how the interwebs can lead you on a journey to discover lots of new ideas for stuff to do with kids. I am always bookmarking ideas but never actually do them but when I saw this one I thought it was time to give something a go.

I saw this link for dirt playdough on the great site Playopedia set up by Childhood 101.

You can access the link directly here and seeing we regularly play with homemade playdough I thought why not mix it up a bit and do something different from the normal food colouring. The idea is to add cocoa to give it a dirt/brown colour.

I like to make my playdough using a non-cook method from the book Small Fry, Inspiration for Cooking with Kids by Susie Cameron and Katrina Cook.

The recipe requires the combination of:





  • 1 cup salt

  • 2 cups plain flour

  • 2 tablespoons cream of tartar


Mix these together then add 2 cups boiling water and 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil (combined) and of course your desired colouring. In this instance though I added a 1/2 to 3/4 cup of cocoa powder to give the "dirt" appearance. Now mix it all together, turn out onto a floured bench and knead it together





Overall the mix was slightly stickier than normal but some extra flour helped with this. I have to say it smells so yummy, a bit like a chocolate cake!

We used ours to make tracks with the tyres on our cars and rolled it into balls to make rocks, the next day it became ice cream for pretend ice cream cones. One week on it still smells great and I have enjoyed trying something different to the normal food colouring.

Why not give it a try the next time you make some play dough!


Do you like making playdough or do you buy it? Do you add anything to your mix to make it a bit different?



Jen

18 comments:

  1. Hey Jen! We're still playing with the green stuff you gave us for Xmas!! Dustys favourite colours are red and brown, so I must give this a try. Should go well with the vehicle obsession. kell

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  2. Can't believe the Christmas playdough is still going strong! Let me know how it turns out, thanks for commenting

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  3. We're playing withe the new Brown stuff right now Jen! Havin lots of fun. So easy to make, but I better invest in some more salt!!

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  4. I was feeling nervous at the mention of dirt playdough, but I think it looks awesome. My little boys would love it! Thanks for the share x

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  5. Ooh, I will try this. We also use essential oil, just a drop or two, sometimes orange, lavender... Also flower petals for texture. I use organic flour - cheaper in bulk and use beetroot juice to dye as well as other natural colorings. love the cocoa. Katie x

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  6. Wow! I love this! Will definitely give it a go! I imagine it smells fabulous! :) I love making my own playdough and don't think I'll ever buy any when it's so easy.. I've got a cool microwave playdough recipe on my blog.
    Would love for you to come say hi at Just For Daisy. I'm now following your lovely little blog! :)

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