Sensory Play with Scented Cloud Dough
Cloud dough is so easy to make and can be stored for many months. It is one of our favorite recipes for play! We have made two ingredient multisensory cloud dough, day and night sensory bins with cloud dough, and cloud dough heart cakes to name a few. Since we've been having so much fun with Kool Aid lately I got inspired to see if I could add it to cloud dough.
Supplies: (Affiliate links are provided for convenience. You can read my full disclosure policy HERE.)
flour
vegetable oil (any cooking oil can be used)
Directions: The basic cloud dough recipe calls for 8 cups of flour and 1 cup of oil. I never actually measure anymore. I just add ingredients until I am happy with the consistency. Cloud dough should be soft and moldable but not too wet/oily.
I used three different methods to color and scent the cloud dough to test which one would produce the most vibrant color.
1. Lemon
Supplies: lemon Kool Aid, sidewalk chalk
I added two packets of lemon Kool Aid to the cloud dough and oil and mixed well with my hand. While the cloud dough smelled divine it was still pretty pale. I used a hammer to crush a stick of sidewalk chalk in a ziploc baggie. I added the chalk to the lemon cloud dough and mixed it in. The chalk produced a lovely shade of yellow, and the lemon cloud dough was ready for play.
2. Orange
Supplies: orange Kool Aid, orange cream Duncan Hines frosting creations
I added two packets of Kool Aid to a new batch of cloud dough. Once again it smelled amazing, but the color was light and uneven. I remembered a couple packages of orange cream frosting creations that I had in the pantry, and I added them to the mixture. The photo above shows that it takes awhile and a good amount of mixing to evenly distribute the color. Once mixed in, the orange cloud dough turned out vibrant and gorgeous!
3. Cherry
Supplies: black cherry Kool Aid, food coloring
By this point I knew that frosting creations produced the best results, but I wanted to test one more method. I added two packets of black cherry Kool Aid to the last batch of cloud dough and mixed a bit. A tiny splash of water helped the Kool Aid powder turn bright red. The dough wasn't quite as bright or even as I wanted it, so I added red food coloring.
The food coloring did the trick, and I was happy with the way the cherry cloud dough turned out. I wouldn't recommend food coloring, though, because I used one and a half bottles of red food coloring to achieve this shade.
By far my favorite method to color cloud dough was by using the Duncan Hines frosting creations. With just three ingredients: flour, oil and frosting creations you can make cloud dough in beautiful colors with scents that will dazzle you. The other two methods will work in a pinch, especially if you want to make a color or scent that Duncan Hines doesn't make.
Once all three doughs were prepared I set out a large comforter and put the bin in the middle and invited my boys to engage in some seasonal sensory play. The bright colors and rich scents reminded me of summer.
Tip: Cloud dough is very messy. I recommend playing with it outdoors. It rained today, so we played in the garage (with my husband's shop vac near by.) Here are my best tips and tricks for messy play as well as laundry tips to avoid stains. I have never had an issue with oil stains from cloud dough. I always add a drop or two of Dawn to the load after play as a precaution.
I specifically chose colors that complement each other and that I knew would blend well once mixed together.
The final orange was pale but beautiful, and you could spot specks of red and yellow.
In typical form JZ (6) set up a war scene. The oranges and lemons were bombs in his play.
For more ideas follow my Recipes for Play board on Pinterest.
Click the images below for more ideas for summer sensory play:
Amazon.com Widgets