Have you tried cloud dough with your kids yet?? It is the most amazing sensory experience! Every time I make cloud dough with my kids I have to jump in and play too.
For Day 7 of our 23 Days of Christmas series we are playing with Christmas themed cloud dough! Today we have put together a list of 10 of our favorite Christmas cloud dough versions for you to try out! We've been having a blast checking these out! Cloud dough is one of those easy to make things that I keep on my 5 Things I Do (or wish I did) Every Day with my Toddler list.
Our all time favorite cloud dough recipe is shared by Jackie at Happy Hooligans. It can be adapted to be taste-safe.
Taste-safe cloud dough means that if your toddler eats it, it's not a huge deal. That being said, you don't want your toddler to be eating spoonfuls of the cloud dough. That WILL make them sick. Make sure you use coconut oil or vegetable or another alternative mentioned in these posts below versus baby oil, if you want your cloud dough to be taste-safe.
As with all activities we share, this is an activity that needs to have adult supervision. Scroll down to read how we keep this activity semi-tidy... or at least try to.
HOW TO MAKE CLOUD DOUGH:
Mix 8 cups flour and 1 cup vegetable oil in a large plastic sensory bin tub.Â
Add your favorite holiday spices or scents, like cinnamon. Mix!
Lay out a towel or vinyl tablecloth and place a sensory bin on top of it.
You'll probably want to join in too!
Here are 10 awesome cloud dough ideas that you should try this Christmas season!
1. P E P P E R M I N T C L O U D D O U G H
This peppermint scented cloud dough shared by Growing a Jeweled Rose is so colorful and smells amazing! Anything that smells like peppermint is a win in my book.
2. S P A R K L Y S N O W C L O U D D O U G H
Where we live in Northern California we are always wishing for snow and never getting it! This snow-like cloud dough sensory experience shared by Nurturestore (with SPARKLES) lets kids make snowmen without the cold. We love it!
3. C A N D Y C A N E C L O U D D O U G H
Candy Cane cloud dough shared by Growning a Jeweled Rose is especially fun because of the bright contrasting colors. Adding in the actual candy canes might put it over the edge from being cool to amazing. You might want to try some fake candy canes with littles who still try and eat everything... since although the cloud dough is taste-safe, you don't want kids to be eating it by the bucket loads.
3. H O T C H O C O L A T E C L O U D D O U G H
Hot chocolate cloud dough shared by Sugar, Spice & Glitter MUST be pulled out when you watch the Polar Express! Filling up cups with cloud dough and doing your own pretend play with hot cocoa is so fun!
4. 1 {H E A R T} C H R I S T M A S C L O U D D O U G H
Meri Cherry's I love Christmas cloud dough is so colorful and light and fluffy! Her magic secret ingredient to make her cloud dough festive is so simple and easy! I wish I had thought of it!
5. C H R I S T M A S S M E L L S C L O U D D O U G H
There are certain smells you associate with Christmas and several of them can be found in Lalymom's Christmas Smells cloud dough! Apple pie, cocoa, and candy cane are always yummy smells to play and explore with.
6. G I N G E R B R E A D C L O U D D O U G H
Since it is Gingerbread Week for our Virtual Book Club for Kids, we tried this gingerbread cloud dough version from Sugar, Spice and Glitter yesterday and my kiddos loved it! We made the gingerbread men run around as fast as they could through the cloud dough.
7. P E P P E R M I N T C L O U D D O U G H
Frogs, Snails and Puppy Dog Tails also created a fun and sparkly peppermint cloud dough version that is on our list to try out. I love the sequins that are added in! Sparkles make everything extra Christmasy.
8. F I Z Z Y C L O U D D O U G H
Powerful Mothering moved from just playing with cloud dough to experimenting with it! We are excited to make some Fizzy Christmas cloud dough! We'll probably make ours red or green instead of purple.
9. C H R I S T M A S C O O K I E C L O U D D O U G H
I'm a fan of anything that mentions the word "cookie." Christmas cookie cloud dough shared by Little Bins for Little Hands mixes in some yummy cookie scents to make this sensory experience one that is fun for the nose and fingers.
10. P E P P E R M I N T C O C O A C L O U D D O U G H
Peppermint and cocoa are separately two of our favorites things, but together they make a power couple. Teaching Mama adds both scents to her Peppermint Cocoa Cloud Dough to make a delicious smelling sensory experience for kids.
K E E P I N GÂ T H I N G SÂ T I D Y
Cloud dough can be messy. We like to play with it outside to help keep the mess out of our house. When it is cold or rainy, we use a big plastic tablecloth and lay it out in our kitchen. It is perfect because it covers the floor and when we are done we can roll it up and shake it out in the outside trash and move on to the next thing.
When kids play with cloud dough, we always review the rules about keeping the cloud dough in the bucket. Kids sometimes try throwing the dough and making a mess, so I usually reiterate the rules/expectations, and then if the kids still can't follow them, we're done with the activity. Although I like to let kids explore materials, I don't want them wasting or ruining play materials.
Enforcing expectations (even for my littlest ones) and using the big plastic sheet really help me mellow out a bit and not worry too much about the mess. It cleans up really easily with a broom or napkin. I like to dress kids in clothes that are OK to get covered in powder (that you can brush off), or I keep an extra outfit nearby for after this activity.
Now that we've told you a little bit about each version, which version of cloud dough do you plan to try first?
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