Thursday, July 22, 2010

Sand Play Dough


Last week Ella and Zoe, Irene and Julia (the 2 1/2 year old twins I babysit), and Tom and I went to our neighborhood beach and built a sandcastle and a sand turtle.
*the turtle is on the left in front of Ella*

This week the girls and I made homemade SAND PLAY DOUGH and individual sandcastles, using a super easy recipe from Family Fun magazine:
1) Mix 1 cup of sand, 1/2 cup cornstarch, and 1 teaspoon alum to a saucepan and use a wooden spoon to combine them completely.
2) Add 3/4 cup water and stir the mixture until it is smooth and the cornstarch is dissolved.
3) Cook the clay over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally. The clay should start to thicken within a minute or two (this part got to be quite the arm work-out).
4) After about 3 minutes of cooking, the clay will have thickened to the consistency of play dough.

Then the girls went to town squishing, forming, building, sculpting and creating their own unique sandcastles.


The final touch was adding flowers (we didn't have any seashells on hand). I think they turned out really cute and the process itself was a lot of fun : )

*Zoe's Sandcastle*

*Ella's Sandcastle*

8 comments:

SouthernDogwoods said...

How adorable! Looks like great fun!

Taylor said...

What a fabulous idea! You always do so many fun things with them, lucky girls!

Annie said...

They did a great job. So glad they enjoyed it.

Mama Hen said...

Absolutely beautiful! I love the sand playdough idea! I have to try it! Thank you for the recipe! We have made playdough, but not with sand! Have a great day!

Mama Hen

Carolyn said...

I wanna build a sand castle, too!

Mama Hen said...

Have a great day today!

Mama Hen

Rydley said...

What a fun idea! I have no idea what alum is so I'll have to ask you!

Mama Hen said...

Thank you for your kind comment! I just finished the decorations and I am tired. I can't wait to see Little Chick's face in the morning when she sees her surprises! I hope you have a great day! :)

Mama Hen