For the last 5 years whenever I have needed to make some playdough I have used the recipe from The Imagination Tree for the 4-minute no cook playdough and it’s been great. However, the kids were brought some Fun from Lush which is a fantastic multipurpose dough that they can wash with and play with in the bath. The ingredients are listed on the side and with talc/cornflour as the main ones and the rest simple soap ingredients, I thought it was time to try a version of our own a really quick and easy 2-ingredients apple scented playdough recipe which would be perfect to use for some hands-on maths activities for this week’s Virtual Book Club for Kids theme apples and featured book Ten Apples Up on Top by Dr. Seuss.
Materials Need for Apple Scented Playdough
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1 cup of All Purpose Flour
1/2 cup of either Apple Scented Dish-Soap or Apple Scented Shampoo
OPTIONAL: – Green Food Colouring
Making the 2-Ingredient Apple Scented Playdough
- In a clean bowl pour in 1 cup of flour.
- Add in 1/2 cup of either dish soap or shampoo.
- Mix together with your hands.
- Knead until smooth.
- As our dough wasn’t very green we added some food colouring and intensified the colour.
This dough is much lighter than the playdough I normally make it also leaves your hands soft and doesn’t dry them out like normal playdough does.
Maths Activities for use with the Apple Scented Playdough
Although the playdough is great for fine motor skills and it smells amazing I like using it with the kids with some hands-on activities. Here’s some suggestions of activities you can do with the kids using the 2-ingredient playdough in a maths centre this week.
Shapes
Roll, manipulate and work with the playdough to create some 3D shapes or use some shape cookie cutters to create 2D shapes – this is a fantastic set that includes different sizes of the shapes so leads you to talk about measurement language as well as shape language with your kids.
Numbers
Make mini apples from the dough and use a person playdough mat and count out the number of apples on top of their head.
Calculations
Use the dough to add, subtract, count on, work on number bonds, half, double and total in a number of ways. Aim at your child’s level so if you have a young toddler that can count to 5 make up 5 apples and then take away one or add a new one. If your child is working on number bonds or halving and doubling then use the dough to create apples – you could even create 10 red apples (work in some red food dye instead of green to half the dough at the start) and 10 green apples and then you can visualise the number bonds or calculations you are working on.
Other Books for This Week’s Apple Themed Virtual Book Club for Kids
More Apple themed books for Preschooler and Toddlers
10 Red Apples by Pat Hutchins – Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk
Apples, Apples, Apples by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace – Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk
Apple Pie ABC by Alison Murray – Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk
Orange Pear Apple Bear by Emily Gravett – Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk
Apples by Gail Gibbons – Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk
Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall – Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk
Weekly Virtual Book Club for Kids
Don’t forget that you can join us over on Facebook in the Virtual Book Club for Kids Group to get a full range of Apple-themed activities this week as well as an advance preview of next weeks additional book list and connect with over 2500 other people interested in bringing books alive with their kids.
Magnetic Names Apple Picking – from Preschool Powol Packets
How to Trace your name with Fingerprint Apples – from Whitty Hoots
Fine Motor Apple Graphing Activity – from Extremely Good Parenting
Ten Apples Up on Top File Folder Game – from Views from a Step Stool
Sequencing Numbers Words – from Adventures of Adam
Finger Painted Apple Trees – from Clare’s Little Tots
Playdough Apple Stacking Activity – from Inspiration Laboratories
Apple Snack for Kids – from Craft Create Calm
Preschool Learning -~ Apple cooking – from Mama Smiles
Science in Motion Apple Game – from The Educators’ Spin On It
Magnetic Levitating Apple Stacking – from Teach Beside Me
Apple Colour Mixing Science – from Powerful Mothering
Colourful Spin Art Apple Banner – from Toddler Approved
Apple Themed Prewriting Activity – from Sugar Aunts
Ten Apples Up on Top Movement Activity – from Still Playing School
Are Apple Round? – from Peakle Pie
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup either dish soap or shamppo apple scented
- Optional: Green and Red Food Colouring
-
Add the soap/shampoo to the flour
-
Mix together
-
Knead to a smooth dough
-
Add food colouring if you wish
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Trisha
Oh I haven’t tried this with AP flour – only cornstarch. Lovely!
Colleen
This is a great recipe! My kids love any kind of play dough!
Clare's Little Tots
Last time we tried to make playdough with washing up liquid it was a huge disaster but kids enjoyed the mess. Think I’ll have to give it another go.
Adventures of Adam
How amazing that it only needs two ingredients! No more remembering how many tablespoons etc of anything else!