Easy Easter play dough

One of my favorite activities for kids is playing with play dough. There is just something kids love about being able to create anything your mind can dream up. As a teacher, I love the imaginative play, but I also love that kids are developing small motor skills when they roll, pinch, and mold play dough. In the classroom, I usually make a large double batch, which has a color and smell that corresponds to the season.

With Easter just around the corner, a few smaller batches of play dough with Spring colors and smells seems like a great idea.

Here’s the recipe for small-batch play dough. I made this recipe six different times so we would end up with six different colors.

Dry ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup salt
• 1 small packet of Kool-Aid

Place the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl and gently combine them. I used my large stand mixer, but you could also make the same recipe with a mixing bowl and large spoon.

Wet ingredients:

• ½ cup boiling water
• 1 Tbsp vegetable oil

I used my glass measuring cup, measured ½ cup of water, and put the water in the microwave for 1 minute, then added the oil to the hot water after it came out of the microwave. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until combined.

To make a variety of colors and smells, we made six different batches and we used several different flavors of Kool-Aid, a different flavor in each batch. Cherry, orange, and grape were my daughter’s favorites!

The recipe should produce play dough with the perfect texture and consistency. If it seems too sticky, add 1 tablespoon of flour while continuing to mix the play dough. As my daughter played with the play dough, it started to dry out a bit. When that happened, we added 3 or 4 drops of vegetable oil and kneaded the play dough some more.

Storing the play dough for Easter is really fun!  

Use plastic Easter eggs to store play dough. This makes a great Easter basket item for kids of all ages! Our eggs had small holes at the top and bottom of each side of the egg. We used a strong packing tape, and covered the holes on the inside of each egg, so the play dough would not dry out. A small round of play dough will fit into each Easter egg and will keep for about 2 weeks.  

Print Easter playmats (below) for a fun way to play with the play dough.