Red, White, and Blue Homemade Play Dough
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We've been celebrating the upcoming 4th of July holiday with all kinds of Independence Day themed hands-on activities. Today we made some Red, White, and Blue homemade play dough with our easy scented no-cook play dough recipe.
Ingredients for Red, White, and Blue Homemade Play Dough Recipe
- 1 cup of all-purpose white flour
- 1/4 cup fine table salt
- 1 tbsp cream of tartar
- 2 tbsp of vegetable oil
- 1 tbsp vegetable glycerin
- 3/4 cup boiling water
- 1/4 tsp of icing colors (red and blue)
- 4-6 drops each of Lemon, Vetiver, and Tangerine essential oils.
Directions:
Mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl.
Add wet ingredients (oil, glycerin, icing colors, essential oil, and boiling water) and mix together thoroughly.
I made three separate batches of this recipe, one for each color and scent.
For the red dough we used Lemon essential oil, for the blue dough we used Vetiver, and for the white I used Tangerine.
Let the dough sit for about 5 minutes to cool down before handling.
Take the dough out and kneed it until it comes together with the consistency you want (smooth and not falling apart). You may need some extra flour to keep your hands from sticking to the dough.
You can view a video of how we made our play dough below.
To keep your play dough fresh, store it in an air tight container of plastic bag. We tore off small pieces of it to use in other activities and kept the rest of it in the bag to keep it from drying out.
I'm excited how the colors came out and also how they smell.
For more sensory and hands-on activities like this one, check out my resources below.
- Calming, No-Cook Play Dough Recipe
- Sensory Activities for Children
- Fine Motor Activities for Children
- 5 Easy Ways to Introduce Scissor Skills for Toddlers
Heather Greutman, COTA
Heather Greutman is a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant with experience in school-based OT services for preschool through high school. She uses her background to share child development tips, tools, and strategies for parents, educators, and therapists. She is the author of many ebooks including The Basics of Fine Motor Skills, and Basics of Pre-Writing Skills, and co-author of Sensory Processing Explained: A Handbook for Parents and Educators.