Last Updated on July 31, 2023 by Team Ideas24
So many of the children’s toys that are popular today seem to have less and less benefit for their social, cognitive, and motor skills development. Surrounded by technology, many spend hours sitting on the couch staring at screens with only their fingers and eyeballs moving.
I often see children as young as one and two years old playing with their parents’ tablets or smartphones. Not the throwing and eating the tablet kind of play, but really playing the games installed on the device. Sure, it’s impressive to see the dexterity at such a young age but is the risk of addiction to video game stimulation the best outcome for a child’s well-being?
Technology is a wonderful thing and can certainly open up new opportunities for all of us, but the games played by older generations, although way simpler, demanded more interaction and imagination. One example is play dough – a simple thing to play with but it’s a great tool to assist in a child’s overall development.
Of course, you still have to compete with the electronic distractions so plain old molding clay may not ‘cut the mustard’. Why not try this DIY night sky play dough instead?
You’ll be needing the following materials and ingredients to create a DIY galaxy play dough.
Materials:
- measuring cup
- saucepan
- wax paper
Ingredients:
- 1 cup of flour
- 7/8 cup of water
- 1/8 cup coloring
- 1/3 cup of salt
- 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
- 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon of unflavoured gelatin
- Black liquid watercolors (like this one)
- lots of glitters (blue, white, silver, gold) – the amount will depend on how starry you want your galaxy play dough to be!
Contents
How to make a DIY galaxy play dough
1. Prepare the mixture
Fill 7/8 of your measuring cup with water and top up with your watercolors.
2. Heat the mixture
Pour the mixture into a medium saucepan and then sprinkle the gelatin powder. Turn up the heat to high and stir the mixture until the gelatin is dissolved.
3. Stir the mixture
Adjust the heat to low and add all the other ingredients except the glitter. Then turn the heat to medium stirring constantly for about a minute until you get a dough that is beginning to form a large clump around your spoon.
4. Transfer the dough
Turn off the heat and transfer the dough onto waxed paper to cool.
5. Make a galaxy shape and sprinkle the glitter
When it has cooled down sprinkle and knead the glitter until you get the look of the night sky.
Click on any image to start the lightbox display. Use your Esc key to close the lightbox. 8-)
If you liked this project, you might also like to view DIY Playdough for Kids…
