This ice painting process art idea, taken from my new ebook and online art course for families Art Spark, includes the extra sensory element of coldness. It’s a fun hands-on activity, particularly good as an outdoor art exploration and for keeping cool on hot summer days.
Super fun, super sensory play activities that invite your children to learn through their senses as they explore doughs, paints, ice, and cookies!
This Christmas play dough recipe is inspired by the Christmas-flavoured sugar I make each year to go on our Christmas-movie-popcorn.
The sugar smells exactly like Christmas, with a blend of herbs and spices that fills the house with a festive feeling and, as I often have play dough on my brain, I thought why not try it for a Christmas play dough recipe?
Click play on the video above to see our playdough masterclass.
This video gives you everything you ever wanted to know about play dough: how to make homemade playdough with quick and easy recipes; the benefits of playdough for children; and lots of sensory play activities using play dough including playdough math activities, playdough literacy activities, and playdough fine motor skills activities.
Plus find out how to get printable playdough recipe cards and printable play mats. It’s an excellent beginners guide to play dough!
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This article is one of our Christmas sensory play activities and part of our Christmas activities and crafts for children.
Play dough is just fantastic – a super sensory play material that feels good, smells good, doesn’t make too much mess and my kids love it.
It’s great as a calm-down activity for giddy, festive kids, and put together with some Christmas cookie cutters it makes a lovely Christmas gift .
Here’s the recipe with the special blend of herbs and spices that smells exactly like Christmas.
Start by filling your salt with all the Christmas flavour. Take one cup of salt and add:
1. the zest of an orange or two clementines
2. some vanilla pod
3. a good grating of nutmeg
4. three cloves
5. some ground cinnamon
6. a bay leaf
Blitz this with a blender until everything is chopped, mixed and smelling wonderful.
Add two cups of plain (all purpose) flour…
two tablespoons of vegetable oil and two tablespoons of cream of tartar.
Pour in one and a half cups of boiling water…
and some food colouring. Red? Gold? Green? Then mix it and form it into a dough.
Add some extra shine to the play dough recipe by pouring in a little glycerine.
Add a good dash of glitter for some festive sparkle. Knead the dough for a few minutes and then you’re done.
Wrap the play dough in a plastic bag and it will last into the new year.
This is a gloriously sensory process art adventure, where the focus is on enjoying the look, feel, and scent of the homemade puffy paint.
Painting with pipettes is a fun process art project that combines sensory play, art and science. It’s one of the projects included in my Art Spark resources which will give you everything you need to start a joyful art practice with your children.
A classic, no cook play dough recipe that you can make in minutes, using ingredients from your kitchen cupboard. Here’s a step-by-step recipe, along with ideas for a whole year of play dough activities.
Click play on the video above to see our playdough masterclass.
This video gives you everything you ever wanted to know about play dough: how to make homemade playdough with quick and easy recipes; the benefits of playdough for children; and lots of sensory play activities using play dough including playdough math activities, playdough literacy activities, and playdough fine motor skills activities.
Plus find out how to get printable playdough recipe cards and printable play mats. It’s an excellent beginners guide to play dough!
Subscribe to NurtureStore’s YouTube channel to get more gardening and nature study videos!
Nurturestore has lots of articles about fun play dough ideas but I though today I thought I’d get back to basics with a step-by-step easy play dough recipe.
It’s a super easy recipe and even if you’ve never tried making your own play dough before, follow these steps and you’ll be ready to enjoy some fantastic sensory play in minutes.
I’m going to show you my favourite no cook play dough recipe. There are many versions and variations of play dough available in our archive of play dough recipes but this is the one I use most often because it’s easy, quick and lasts really well.
Step One: Take a large bowl and add:
:: 2 cups flour
:: 1 cup salt
:: 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
:: 2 tablespoons cream of tartar*.
Step Two: add in any extras such as:
:: glitter
:: spices
:: fragrance
Step Three: boil the kettle and pour 1 1/2 cups of the water into your mixture.
Add in any food colouring at this stage so it mixes evenly through the dough.
Step Four: mix the ingredients together to form a dough and you are ready to play.
Play dough too crumbly? Add a little more oil.
Play dough too sticky? Add in a little more flour.
Want your play dough to last a long time? Wrap it up well in a plastic bag as soon as you’ve finished playing and your play dough could last for months.
* Not got all the ingredients? If you discover you have no cream of tartar, no problem – just leave it out. You can make a basic dough just by combining flour and water if that’s all you have. The dough won’t last but will give you a great day’s worth of play.