Salt Dough Shapes Craft
Let your sweet kid have some salty fun with this homemade play dough.
Submitted by
Laura
Laura
Arts and crafts are always a sure bet for entertaining your cooped-up kids, but there's not a pipe cleaner in sight and heading out to the crafts store for supplies with amped-up kids (or even one amped-up kid!) isn't an option. Grab the salt from the back of your cupboard, the 10-pound bag of flour you bought at Costco and head to the kitchen table to make some fun, easy salt-dough shapes.
- 4 cups of flour
- 1 cup of salt
- Measuring cup
- Mixing bowl
- A small pot
- 1½ cups of hot (not boiling) water
- Tupperware container with a lid
- Whisk or fork
- Wax paper or tin foil
- Tape
- Cookie sheet
- Oven
- Vacuum:Prevent your kid from licking the stuff off the floor when he's finished!
- Acrylic paint and a paint brush
- Embellishments:Glitter, beads, pom poms, fabric pieces, pipe cleaners, etc.
- Acrylic spray sealer:Like Krylon.
- Glue
Protect your work space. Tape two large sheets of wax paper onto the table. Your furniture suffers enough random abuse at the hands of your kids; might as well protect it when you can.
Cover the cookie sheet with wax paper, too.
Preheat your oven to 200 degrees.
Bring the water, flour, salt, measuring cups, whisk, mixing bowl and Tupperware to the table.
Help your kid pour the salt into the mixing bowl.
Carefully add the hot water.
Hand your kid the whisk and tell him to stir it all up until the salt dissolves (about a minute or two).
Help him toss in the flour. The mixture will immediately thicken and your kid will immediately want to stick his hands into it—which is great because it's time to knead the dough. Repeat these words: "Salt dough is for playing, not eating." After his first salty lick, your kid'll get the picture.
Ask your kid to squish, mash and knead the dough. We're guessing he's an old pro given he's been squishing, mashing and kneading every piece of food that's graced his plate since he developed the ability to make a fist.
When the dough's kneaded, take out what your kid needs for his first masterpiece and put the rest into a Tupperware container and seal it. You don't want it to dry out.- Let your kid go to town. Invite him to pound it, roll it, anything but throw it. Encourage him to shape the dough into something, but keep it simple. Snowballs are a huge hit, as are handprints, letters of the alphabet, hearts, little animals, etc.
- Finally, pound the shapes so they're a quarter-inch thick and toss them onto the cookie sheet.
- Pop them into the oven for 30 to 40 minutes, depending on how thick the salt dough shapes are. When they're white and hard, they're done.
- Take them out, let them cool and have your kid decorate them. He can paint them, cover them in beads and glitter, glue on fabric swatches. Anything goes!
- While he lets his artistry flow, grab the vacuum. You'll want to get up all the flour before he traipses it all over the house. And you way want to have a mop on hand, too, just in case!
- If you want the salt dough shapes to last forever and ever, take 'em outside and spray 'em with a coat of acrylic spray sealer when he's done decorating them.
- Don't let the salt dough sit out or it will dry out. If you need to save it overnight, wrap it in a wet dishcloth and put it in a sealed Tupperware container in the fridge.
- Want to make ornaments? Just take a straw and poke a hole for hanging at the top of your kid's salt dough shape before you bake it.
- Got some salt dough left over? Check out our Stuck on You activity for making cool salt dough fridge magnets!
Submit!
