Skip to Content

Join The KinderArt Club, for Premium Art Lesson Plans.

Homemade Play Dough

Homemade Play Dough
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Make your own play dough using this recipe. This is our favorite homemade clay recipe of all time!

By Andrea Mulder-Slater

What You Need:

  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 cup boiling water
  • 1/2 cup of salt
  • 1 tablespoon of oil
  • 2 tablespoons of cream of tartar
  • food coloring (optional)

Play dough ingredients.

What You Do:

Bring the water to a boil.

Stir in the salt and bring the water back to a boil. (If you only have a kettle and not a stove, just use boiling water from the kettle and mix it with the salt).

Remove from heat and add the flour, oil and cream of tartar making sure little hands don’t touch the boiling water (let the mixture cool a bit before allowing them to stick their hands in).

Once all ingredients are well blended, then you can add a few drops of food coloring until you achieve the desired color(s). We did our color mixing in plastic baggies to cut down on the mess.

Make your own no-cook play dough.

Store unused dough in a sealable container. This dough will dry on its own over a period of days or you can put it in the oven on parchment paper (very low heat – 200 degrees or so) for several hours.

Homemade play dough. Create wonderful sculpture with your own homemade clay.

Don’t Miss:

Tips for Working with Play Dough


Join Our Club

You are currently on the KinderArt.com site which features lots of free art activity ideas for kids (I hope you are enjoying them!) HOWEVER, if you are looking for more detailed art lesson plans, drawing lessons, printables, sketchbook starters (and more) provided monthly, you will LOVE The KinderArt Club - a membership portal designed for parents, homeschoolers, classroom art teachers and studio instructors.

Inside the club you will find hundreds of printable PDF art lessons designed to work in small or large group settings, with a range of ages (from 5 to 12 years).

Get creative teaching kids at home, instructing students in a classroom, leading workshops in a studio, or sharing online, as you explore artists, art periods, science, nature, history, cultures and themes, with creativity and flexibility in mind.

Join us today at: TheKinderArtClub.com



Sign up for our Newsletter