Spring Play Dough

We’ve had a couple of false starts to Spring where I live but I’m hoping things are headed for warmer weather soon! (As far as I’m concerned, once Maple Syrup Season is over, there’s no point in having cold weather anymore.)

To welcome Spring, Mr. R helped me whip up a batch of homemade play dough which he generously shared with the other children. I also made a second batch of corn starch (corn flour) and hair conditioner play dough (which I first saw over at Montessori Life as We Know It) as an experiment for Miss Z who has sensitive skin — I still love our oatmeal play dough recipe for sensitive skin, but I wanted to find an option that would be a bit more visually versatile. It is just one part conditioner to two parts corn starch. This recipe was incredibly soft and I loved how the colours turned out — but I am a bit curious how long the dough will last, so I’ll update when I find out!

I used Wilton Coloured Gels to dye the play dough, and they remain my top choice for keeping on hand for projects like this. They are more versatile and cost-effective than liquid food colouring and I find the colours can be more easily manipulated. I used Violet, Teal, Pink, and Lemon Yellow. Bellow I did a side by side comparison of how my “traditional” homemade play dough looked beside the corn starch versions — the same amount of dye was used in each.