Pumpkin Play Dough | Sensory Fun for Kids
If you love pumpkins and pumpkin pie, you’ll adore this fun homemade pumpkin play dough. This activity is a wonderful sensory activity for kiddos, and it has a science element as well! Kids can learn a variety of scientific principles while making play dough, including measuring, following a recipe, how heat can change the properties of something, and how ingredients can change and mix when combined. Have fun this fall with this kitchen science activity.
Pumpkin Play Dough Sensory Play
To make pumpkin play dough, you will need:
Mix 1 cup of flour, 1/2 cup of salt, 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil, 1 tablespoon of cream of tartar, and a sprinkle of each spice in a small saucepan. Add orange food coloring to make your pumpkin dough orange.
Add one cup of hot water and mix. You may need to add a little more flour if your dough is sticky.
Knead the dough until it is soft and smooth to the touch, and completely cool.
Give the dough to your kids to play with. We transformed our pumpkin dough into a 3D pumpkin by adding a stick stem and a curly piece of paper for a vine.
We also used a pumpkin cookie cutter to cut out pumpkin shapes.
The addition of spices to this dough makes it smell amazing, and just like pumpkin pie!
Play Dough Science Explained
Is play dough science? You might not think so, but there is an element of chemistry that goes on during the play dough mixing and cooking process. While making play dough, kids learn all about following a recipe and that each ingredient has a specific purpose. If you don’t follow through with the recipe as listed, disaster can strike, and you’ll end up with a sloppy goop. Kids can learn how to measure, and how heat can be used to transform materials into something new.
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