My Littles have been learning their Hebrew letters, and this week was all about Gimel ג….and since we love learning with food, what better way to master this topic than with g’lidah (גלידה – ice cream)?! As one of our activities, we made pretend ice cream sundaes, using this wonderfully scented play dough that you can make in LESS than 5 minutes!
I made three dough “flavors” using completely edible ingredients, so if you have little learners, no need to worry about them getting some in their mouths! The smells are also pretty enticing…so you might want to have some actual ice cream on hand to keep your children (and maybe even yourself!) from devouring the play dough! I made three kinds – vanilla, chocolate, and cherry – and each batch takes LESS than 5 minutes to prepare! You know my favorite projects are the quick & easy kind, and this is nothing new. I used this recipe from Learning4Kids, omitting the food coloring and changing the strawberry to cherry.
Below are the ingredients you’ll need for each play dough. The preparation process is basically the same for each flavor, and I have pictures of the cherry play dough for you to see. Enjoy!!
Vanilla Play Dough
- 1 cup flour
- 2 teaspoons cream of tartar (available in the spice aisle)
- 1/2 cup salt
- 1 cup warm water
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
Chocolate Play Dough
- 1 cup flour
- 1.5 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons cream of tartar (available in the spice aisle)
- 1/2 cup salt
- 1 cup warm water
- 1 tablespoon oil
Cherry Play Dough
- 1 cup flour
- 2 teaspoons cream of tartar (available in the spice aisle)
- 1/2 cup salt
- 3 tablespoons cherry juice
- just under 1 cup warm water
- 1 tablespoon oil
Put the dry ingredients in a saucepan (flour, salt, cream of tartar, and cocoa powder [for chocolate]), then add the wet ingredients (water, oil, and vanilla [for vanilla] or cherry juice [for cherry]). Whisk everything together and make sure it’s lump-free.
Put the pan on medium heat, stirring constantly. This step is really important. The mixture will start to thicken and turn into play dough within a few minutes, so keep stirring!
I took these pictures about a minute apart, so seriously….don’t stop stirring! It’ll start to get thick and stick to the bottom, so be sure to scrape the bottom of your pan as you’re mixing. I used a regular silicone spatula, but you could use a wooden spoon or another less flexible utensil.
Once the dough ball is formed in the pan (see the last picture), turn it out onto a lightly floured surface (for the chocolate, I used a mix of cocoa powder & flour), then knead until it’s smooth and pliable. It will be HOT, so be careful!
Once the dough cools down, you can keep it in a resealable bag or airtight container. Don’t do like I did and put it in a Ziploc bag right away…the moisture from the steam will make the dough feel moist and clammy and gross. So don’t do that!
I just made these three, but the possibilities are endless! You can replace a few tablespoons of the water with all sorts of fruit juices (like I did with the cherry play dough batch), or even coffee. Add some peppermint oil, and maybe even crushed peppermint for a fun sensory experience, or make an herbal play dough with thyme and rosemary…there’s really no limit to the types of play dough you can make, or the things you can create with them!
Here’s a picture of one of the sundaes from one of our g’lidah-related activities, complete with rainbow rice “sprinkles” and chocolate “sauce.”
I’d love to see what kinds of play dough you come up with, and what you use them for! Tag me in your IG posts (@thekefar) or drop me a line in the comments below. Happy creating!
