Playdough!

Last week, K’s pre-K teacher asked for volunteers to make playdough.  Always eager to help, I told him I would help and he gave me the recipe.  I already had everything on the list except cream or tartar and Kool-Aid, plus I was getting low on salt.  Off to the store we went and then came home to try this out.

Playdough
– 3 cups flour
– 1 1/2 cups salt
– 3 tablespoons oil
– 2 tablespoons cream of tartar
– 3 cups water
– saucepan
– mixing spoon
– hot plate or stove

Combine all ingredients.  Cook over very low heat until mixture is no longer sticky to the touch.  Add food coloring or 1 packet Kool-Aid for color (Kool-Aid also adds smell).

Ingredients for Playdough

All mixed together on low heat on stove

Starting to be less sticky

Finished playdough! Note how it easily pulls from the sides of the pan and it will be no long sticky to the touch

Cooled, put into gallon sized bags, and dated

The most expensive ingredient for me was the cream of tartar.  I didn’t have time to check out the dollar store, so bought it at the grocery store while I was there.  Otherwise, all the ingredients are things normally on hand.  In all, this takes about 20 minutes to do, 5 minutes to measure things out, 10-15 minutes for it to cook on the stove.

In the end, we ended up doing this recipe 4 times, making 4 bags of playdough.  We went through about 5 lbs of flour, 2 26 oz canisters of salt, 1 2.5oz container of cream of tartar, not very much of the container of vegetable oil.  Depending on where you shop for the ingredients, it’s a pretty cheap activity.

Update: A friend let me know that she made this recipe and does not have non-stick pans like I used, and the playdough was still stuck to the bottom of her pan even after it was all done.  If you have non-stick pans, I would advise using one for this project.