The Power of Playdoh

I admit it.  I'm a playdoh snob.  I know all about how good playdoh is for kids to work those small muscles and build strength in their hands.  I value the sensory experience a child gets from playing with a mound of colored dough.  Here's the thing though...it's just not happening with this canned stuff in my classroom.  My students don't play with store bought playdoh. I guess they're playdoh snobs, too.

 

 

Aside from the fact it's expensive and way too difficult for little hands to work with, I have a few concerns with the extra ingredients of commercial Playdoh.  According to Wikipedia...

 

Play-Doh's current manufacturer, Hasbro, reveals the compound is primarily a mixture of water, salt, and flour,^[2] while its 2004 United States patent indicates it is composed of water, a starch-based binder, a retrogradation inhibitor, salt, lubricant, surfactant, preservative, hardener, humectant, fragrance, and color.^[10] A petroleum additive gives the compound a smooth feel, and borax prevents mold from developing.

 

So I really don't know much about retrogradation inhibitors and surfactants.  Do I want my students kneading it with their hands?  I know it has to be safe since commercial playdoh is non-toxic and made for children but why are those ingredients there in the first place?  

 

Hmmmmm...maybe those are the ingredients which make commercial playdoh hard and crumbly.  There are no inhibitors or surfactants in my homemade playdoh and my homemade playdoh isn't hard nor crumbly so that must be it. 

 

My favorite playdoh recipe is simple and contains common household ingredients I can easily pronounce:

1. Flour
2. Water
3. Salt
4. Cream of Tartar
5. Vegetable Oil
6. Food Coloring

I love homemade playdoh because it's soft and easy for tiny hands to squeeze.  It holds together really well so you can form it into balls or make long skinny snakes without it crumbling all over the place.

 

Each month, I make a couple of batches of playdoh for my class.  I usually stir in the Color of the month from my assortment of food colorings.  I love these gel colors!  They combine well when you're cooking the flour mixture plus they won't spill on your kitchen counters. 

 

The CLASSIC assorted colors are a must if you want to make your own playdoh.  They are pure and true colors.  I don't have much luck mixing them to create new colors but for basic primary colored playdoh, you just can't go wrong with the Classics.  The NEONs are fun and your students will absolutely love them.  Oh, this is the perfect time of year to check your local Big Lots for the FALL box of food colorings.  Rich, deep colors perfect for making beautiful autumn colored playdoh.

 

I always double the recipe...and then I make it AGAIN and double it that time, too.  So basically for my class supply, I have four batches of playdoh.  I have tried tripling or quadrupling the recipe all in one pan and trust me...you can't even stir it!  So doubling seems to work best.

 

 

Here are my best tips for making your own homemade playdoh...

• Use plain, all purpose flour
• Mix the food coloring of your choice with the water BEFORE you add it to the flour mixture.  It just mixes more evenly with the flour this way.
• Spray the pot with non-stick cooking spray before you start
• Don't substitute olive oil for the cooking oil.  Trust me on this one.
• Cook over medium heat & stir constantly.  Don't leave it cooking on the stove while you run in your laundry room, start folding clothes, and forget you're making playdoh. I've probably never done that.
• You'll know it's done when a huge ball forms and it gets REALLY difficult to stir.
• Turn out onto waxed paper and let cool.  I usually knead it a bit.

Here are two batches (remember, each was doubled so this is actually FOUR recipes) I made today.

 

After it's cooled about 10 minutes on the waxed paper, I start dividing it in half, then half again, and so on.  That's how I get a portion for each student to be fairly similar in size. 

 

Once I have it all divided, I store each child's playdoh ball in a plastic sandwich bag and label it with their name.  This is their playdoh for the entire month. I just think it works better for each child to have their own bag so it's worth the effort to divvy it up.  Not only for cleanliness sake but also it helps teach kids to take care of their playdoh.  If you drop huge chunks on the floor or don't clean your area up, then by the end of the month you might only have a teeny tiny ball of playdoh left to take home.  But at least it wasn't made with any inhibitors or surfactants!