Cloud dough (otherwise known as moon sand) is a fabulous sensory play material that can be made with items found in the pantry or craft cupboard.

The finished product behaves like kinetic sand and can be molded then broken down ready to play again.

 

Ingredients:

8 cups plain flour

1 cup vegetable or baby oil.

1 tablespoon powdered non-toxic tempera paint.

 

 

Add flour to large mixing bowl, make a well in the centre and add oil (I prefer vegetable oil as baby oil has a very strong smell). Mix until all combined and stays together when squeezed into a ball.

Split mix into several bowls and work powdered paint though until thoroughly coloured.

 

We have tried several other methods to colour the cloud dough including gel food colouring, liquid watercolours and water based food colouring but only found powered paint or powdered food colouring successful.

 

Cloud dough can be messy and is best played with outside or on a large plastic sheet to make clean up easier.

The boys love exploring with cloud dough by making shapes, castles, balls, play food using cookie cutters and then breaking them down again.

It is also a fantastic medium for teaching colour mixing. Indy (2 yrs old) loved mixing blue and yellow cloud dough together to make green and watching all the dough change and mould together.

 

Cloud dough is best kept in a zip lock bag or airtight container.