Make your own Kool Dough

It’s really fun and easy to make your own Kool-Aid play dough and here’s how…

Let me begin by explaining what Kool-Aid is if you don’t already know. Kool-Aid is a flavoured drink mix from the U.S.A. It has been around since 1927 – thank Wikipedia for the info! The brilliant thing about Kool-Aid is that it will colour  your dough without the need for messy food colouring and also give your dough a nice scent to add to your little ones’ sensory experience.

Making your own dough is a grown up lead activity but it is also good to involve your children too, who can learn so much from this process. It is an easy no cook recipe to which you will need to add oil and very hot water. So please do take care with the hot water.

Equipment you need-

• Large bowl
• kitchen scales
• Mixing spoon (note a wooden spoon may get stained so use a metal one if that is going to be a problem)
• Measuring spoon (tbsp)
• Measuring jug (ml)

Ingredients you need-

• 200g Plain flour
• 200g salt
• 1 package of Kool-aid
• 1 table spoon of oil (any cooking oil)
• 150ml of freshly boiled hot water

Ingredients required (plus boiling water)

So lets roll our sleeves up and get stuck in!  First you need to empty the dry ingredients into the bowl. A great way to explore and learn about weighing and measuring with your little one.

Combine the dry ingredients

Add the 150ml of very hot water to the dry mixture and as if by magic – you make pink! (or whatever colour your kool-aid package is) Now before you mix and this is VERY important add the table spoon of oil into the pool of water. If the oil touches the flour first you could get lumps and we don’t like lumpy play dough do we? < top tip

Add the liquid

Next you need to mix until combined, it will look like the pic.

Mix well

Once combined you will need to get your hand in and start kneading (providing it isn’t too hot to touch) until its nice and smooth.

Let the kneading commence

 

Congratulations you have made your own dough! You need to allow the dough to cool before it’s played with or before its stored in the tub.

Your finished kool dough

So which scent will you make?

Halloween sensory play

– In the tuff tray with play dough

Recently I was invited to Sleights Toddler Group to hold a pop up shop and set up an invitation to play. I put together a Halloween themed sensory explosion perfect for ages 3+ and younger ones with adult supervision.

The key ingredients were Black and Orange Dotty Dough and dried beans/pulses. I used dried black beans (available in Sainsbury’s – everybody asked) and orange lentils.

Rolling pins, Halloween themed cutters and more dough tools extend playtime.

The lentils were great for making a warty pumpkin, the black beans made excellent spider eyes and we combined them both to make pumpkin faces.

{“colorSpace”:”kCGColorSpaceDisplayP3″,”cameraType”:”Wide”,”macroEnabled”:false,”qualityMode”:2,”deviceTilt”:-0.086943344273839429,”customExposureMode”:1,”extendedExposure”:false,”whiteBalanceProgram”:0,”cameraPosition”:1,”focusMode”:1}

 

The littlest tots enjoyed exploring all the textures.

I’ve got to tell you I was surprised and impressed at how well the beans and lentils stayed in the tray (well done toddlers!) At home you may be OK with a tea tray – don’t quote me on that!

Next time I get the opportunity for some Halloween play I’ll be combining lime green Dotty Dough with green lentils and making some warty witches. Popping corn and rice would also make great additions.

Just a note – adding beans, seeds, lentils etc may decrease the lifespan of your dough.

Thank you for ready and HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Lezah x

Make Learning Languages fun

I’m all about making learning fun and when it comes to using playdough as part of the learning process Maths is often the subject (see Play Dough Maths) This time it’s all about learning languages and I have a free printable for you too!

My little one (5) got busy rolling his dough and learning his colours in French.

Great for ages 5-7

Click to download and print your own French rainbow mat. Download once and print as many times as you like. For personal use only.  ©The Dotty Dough Factory

French rainbow

 

You might also be interested in my recently listing fruit stall mats in French, German, Spanish and Italian.

 

The Best Alternative Easter Gifts

You may be shuddering at the thought of how much Chocolate your little ones, your grandchildren, your god children or your friends children are going to be gifted this Easter. So I looked around the web to bring you some of the best non chocolate Easter gifts.

Lollipop Note Card

• This note card by Little Tweet Stationery is a fabulous token gift which can be personalised with any wording you like. Aside from it being cute and personalised, I love this as it’s a non chocolate treat perfect for little peeps who are dairy intolerant.

Paint Your Own Easter Eggs

• I think this paint your own Easter decorations kit by The Contemporary Home is fantastic. Children can design them, paint them, hide them, find them and then display them or even gift them. I like busy kids, can you tell?!

 

Personalised Vinyled Egg Cups

• I’ve picked these fully functional egg cups from Molliebobbins as these super funky designs can be pesonalised with any name, something you didn’t get when I was a kid and the name Lezah was never an option. Also you could pop a chucky egg in and send the Kinder egg to me!

Bunny Ears

• I can imagine these very cute bunny ears from Little Lapins becoming a popular choice in the dressing up box all year round.

Easter Bunny Garland

• Probably not the first thing you think of to give as a gift but I’m a sucker for a pom pom garland. I’m sure decorating with this garland by Oh Sew Evie would add to the excitement of Easter and would look amazing in your child’s room throughout  Spring.

Easter Egg Hunt Bag

• If you are planning an egg hunt around the garden you might need to kit out your little people with a basket or bag, I thought these personalised bunny bags from Claire Close Studio were ideal and may stop squabbles over who’s whose. Or not!

Easter Colouring Set

• This Easter colouring set from Colour Me Fun is sure to keep the little ones busy and the cute little bag could also be used on an Easter egg hunt (gosh I’m talking about chocolate already!) Just a little heads up this amazing set and our Dotty Dough Easter set is up for grabs over on our Facebook page. << Get over there!

 

Thank you for reading I hope this post was just a little bit helpful and inspiring.

Have a cracking Easter!

Save

World Book Day invitation to play dough

In celebration of World Book Day I set up an invitation to play themed on a fantastic book we love very much – Aliens love underpants by Claire Freedman and Ben Cort.

 

 

The invitation to play was based around play dough (of course!) and loose parts play. Included was plenty of Dotty Dough, beads, buttons, dough people pieces and pipe cleaners.

Here’s what we got up too…

Yes I was responsible for the frilly pants! This friendly pants loving alien is just the cutest.

PANTSTASTIC! Thanks for reading.

Please check out my post from last World Book Day – The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Simple Valentines Card

I really love this simple Valentines card idea, which is quick and easy to make with your little ones. It’s always nice to include your little ones’ hand prints in crafty projects as you get a little record with a time stamp of just how small they were.

Taking this one simple idea I’m going to show you two ways to make a keepsake Valentine card, which is perfect for Daddy!

What you need to make the simple cut out card.

• Two pairs of hands! (including your own)
• Pen/pencil
• Coloured paper, we think red looks best.
• Scissors
• White A4 card
• Glue

Method: Place little hands in a heart shape on the paper and  draw around. Cut out and glue onto the card. Add a special message and don’t forget to include the date!

Painted hand prints card

The same method applies for making this card, although we struggled to get the painty hand prints lined up on the folded card (Mr big hands!)

 

I hope you have fun trying out these quick and easy card ideas. Let me know how you get on. Follow me on Pinterest for more crafty ideas.

 

Christmas Biscuit Tree Decorations

We made some cute and very tasty tree decorations using our Christmas dough cutters.

Here’s the recipe we used.

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5. Line a baking tray with grease proof
paper.

2. Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl until pale, light and fluffy.

3. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract, a little at a time, until well combined.

4. Stir in the flour until the mixture comes together as a dough. Refrigerate if necessary.

5. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured work surface to a thickness of
1cm/½in.

6. Using your Christmas biscuit cutters, cut biscuits out of the dough and
place onto the baking tray. To make into Christmas tree decorations,
carefully make a hole in the top of the biscuit using a straw.

 

7. Bake the biscuits for 8-10 minutes, or until pale golden-brown.
Set aside to harden for 5 minutes, then cool on a wire rack.

8. For the icing, sift the icing sugar into a large mixing bowl and stir in
enough water to create a smooth mixture. Stir in the food colouring.

9. Carefully spread the icing onto the biscuits using a knife and decorate
with your chosen decoration. Set aside until the icing hardens.

10. Enjoy!

Autumn is here

Today I’m feeling the Autumn vibe, I’m loving all the new hues, seeds and berries that are appearing. This has got me thinking about new arts, crafts and activities.

We had a little adventure around the garden and put this together with some specially coloured Dotty Dough. 

Autumnal playdough shades

 

Making impressions

Leaf impression

More impressions

Part of the joy of this activity is gathering the natural materials. Acorns, chestnuts & pinecones would be great too. If you give this a go, send me a tweet I’d love to see what you come up with. 

Our Summer bucket list

I often ask my children what they would like to do in the school holidays and we put together a little list.

This Summer is probably going to be the most activity packed yet! The boys are growing up fast 6 and 4 years, with them both being at school full time in September I feel we need to make the most of our time.

1. Go Camping – We did this last Summer so they are super keen. We just camped out in a friends field. It was midge ridden but perfect.
2. Ride our bikes – We are lucky to live near an old railway line running from Whitby to Scarborough, we may get as far as Robin Hoods Bay.
3. Paddling pool – That was today and yesterday! I just got dried out!
4. Have a beach day – I’m looking for ideas on beach activities if you have any.
5. Hunt Pokemon – My suggestion! This should take us on a few walks in our local area.
6. Visit the library – My 6 year old knows all about the library after a visit at school. He’s keen to visit and choose some books for his reading challenge.
7. Summer reading challenge – see above.
8. Whitby Regatta – We are looking forward to the fairground rides and the epic fireworks. Shame the Red Arrows won’t be on this year.
9. Swimming pool – Hoping there’s some fun sessions at our local pool.
10. Ride pony/motorbike – My youngest loves looking after and riding his pony ‘Billy’. My big boy loves anything with two wheels but I’m glad they are developing their own interests and personalities.

Looks like we are going to be very busy! I’m sad they didn’t mention playing with play dough, drawing or baking but I’ll make sure we get around to those things too.

It will still be business as usual at The Dotty Dough Factory with the Not On The High Street sale ending soon and new products in the pipeline. I’m going to be writing a must do list of business related tasks that I must do and anything I can get done will be a bonus.

I would love to hear from you and what you are getting up to this Summer. How do you balance work and play?

Lezah x

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Play Dough

Because we all love that amazing book; The Very Hungry Caterpillar – In celebration of World book day today I thought I would re-blog this post from a while back (from my old website) Hopefully it will inspire you and your little ones to play too.

I’m sure you all know the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, it’s been a long time favourite of ours. So let us begin. In the light of the moon a little egg lay on a leaf…..

 … pop out of the egg came a little caterpillar, he was VERY hungry.

My Little one really enjoyed making the fruit and we got to practice counting too. We had to substitute lemons for oranges and bananas for plums much to little helpers amusement. He used his little play dough tool to pop in the nibble holes counting as we went.

He was still hungry…

Yep we made all this too!

One piece of Chocolate cake, one ice cream cone, one pickle, one piece of Swiss cheese, one slice of salami , one lolly pop, one piece of cherry pie, one sausage, one cup cake and one slice of watermelon. That night he had stomach ache.

The next day he ate though one nice green leaf. ‘But why mummy?’ ‘Because caterpillars eat leaves’ I replied, ‘oh’. I thought this was quite amusing because he never questioned eating the cake, ice cream, sausage etc! Then we made a great BIG caterpillar.

 

 

 

And a cocoon. I’m sure we all remember the end when he becomes a beautiful butterfly, we enjoyed rolling little balls and squishing them into a pattern, adding sparkly sequins would work really well too.

 

I hope you enjoyed us bringing this story to life. If you are thinking about making your own story time play dough please feel free to share in our Facebook group The Dotty Dough Club House.

Lezah x