Surprise Playdough

http://www.naturemoms.com/playdough.jpg

For the first week of school, I wanted to make play dough for the students. On Monday night I took out all my ingredients for my regular recipe. My play dough recipe can be found here: Play Dough Recipe

One of the ingredients is flour and I usually have the all-purpose flour at home for the play dough. Of course, when I needed it, there wasn't any left. And it was a holiday so most stores were not even open so I couldn't buy it at the time. Luckily, I also had whole wheat/bran flour. My grandma uses it to make roti (pita bread) sometimes and I thought: well, it's still flour so let's see if it works.

The play dough came out pretty awesome!!! Below is the picture of what it looked like with the whole wheat and bran flour I used instead of the all-purpose. The texture was different as you could feel the bran particles as you played with the play dough. 

I didn't get a chance to go further with an activity but perhaps this could be hardened and put into the sand bin with some sand. The children can dig for "treasure" and pretend it to be valuable rocks they are on a hunt for!

Play Dough Recipe

I have used this exact recipe every single week while I was teaching at a Readiness Centre for families. My mom has begun to use it every other day as well as she teaches at a daycare. I also gave this recipe to many parents and they loved the clarity of it and how well it comes out. Pictures to come soon!




Ingredients:


1 cup flour
1 cup coloured water (add food colouring to the water)*
1/2 cup salt
2 tsp. cream of tartar**
1 tbsp. vegetable oil


Steps:


Mix all ingredients together in a heavy bottomed pot, so it will not scorch.


Cook on the stove pot at medium-high heat, stirring until it clumps together. (This happens very quickly!)


Remove from heat. Dump the play dough out of the pot onto the countertop. Knead as it cools.


You do not need to store it in the refrigerator. You can put it into a container and it is good to know. If it is still very warm, you can also put a paper towel inside the container to soak up the moisture (though I rarely need to do this).


* For a very vibrant colour, you can use the Wilton paste food colouring made for cake decorating which can be found at the Bulk Barn or Michael's.


**Cream of tartar can be found in bulk at the Bulk Barn for a cheaper price than from any grocery store.