Kids Crafts: Cloud Dough

Today’s kids craft is an easy one and a fun one. Your kids will probably have the most fun playing with the cloud dough once it is made. This dough is really cool. It looks like it is loose free flowing like dry sand but when you squeeze it, it sticks together. It is just so cool.

To make the cloud dough only takes two household items. Flour and baby oil. You will also want a container to mix and store the cloud dough in. We found that a shoe box sized plastic container worked well but a dishpan would work good too.

We mixed 4 cups of flour with 1/2 cup baby oil in our container. Then I used my hands to mix it all in. It took about 5 minutes to get all the little lumps out and get it throughly mixed. This is a step your kids could do themselves.

Once the cloud dough is all mixed up, let the play time begin. My kids found a couple of cups to fill and press the dough into  to make shapes. Cookie cutters would probably also work well if they are the kind that can be filled and pressed into.

My son had a great time and found that if you squeeze the cloud dough to make a nice sized ball you can throw it like a snowball and watch it explode when it hits it’s target. Thankfully his target wasn’t his sister or myself. I was also fortunate that he discovered this while playing with the cloud dough outside, instead of inside the house. 🙂

Turning Play into Teaching

To make the activity more educational you could press the dough into a square shaped container and then show the kids how to measure it to figure out the area, volume or perimeter. Cut a paper towel tube and fill it with the cloud dough and teach about radius, diameter and circumference. I find that when my kids are playing while they learn they remember what is taught, so much more.

This craft project is fun, frugal and educational all rolled into one. What more could a kid or a mom ask for?

 

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