I love the smells of fall. I also love spices and warm baked goods. My preschooler loves play dough and I make her a fair amount on a frequent basis. I started with this wonderful recipe I found at Domestic Superhero – I absolutely LOVE this recipe and it turns out amazing EVERY time!
I made three different scents – gingerbread, pumpkin spice and apple pie.
To make the basic dough, combine the following in a small saucepan and heat over medium heat until play dough consistency. Add any coloring prior to heating so the color doesn’t run.
Basic Play Dough:
- 1 cup white flour
- 1/3 cup salt
- 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
- 1 cup water
- 1 Tablespoon oil
To create the yummy scents – this is what I added to my basic recipe:
Gingerbread
- 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1 Tablespoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- yellow, red and blue food coloring in a 10:2:1 ratio to make brown color (or you can buy brown food coloring in gel, which works great too!)
Pumpkin Spice
- 1 teaspoon orange peel
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- yellow and red food coloring in 3:1 ratio until desired color
Apple Pie
- 1 teaspoon lemon peel
- 1 Tablespoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
I wish you could smell the amazing scents I have here, but make your own and you’ll experience it very soon!
To make it into a fun activity, I rounded up some leaves, seed pods, grasses and flowers that my preschooler and I had collected on our nature walks in a snack dish I bought at the dollar store. It fit perfect for this activity. I put a small lump of each scent of playdough in the center – doesn’t is look gorgeous?!
I had my preschooler take a small piece of different scents of dough and make small patties out of them, and press something from the collection into the center to make fossils – the grasses and flowers left behind seeds and husks, the seed pods made significant prints and the leaves soft outlines.
My kiddo played with this activity well over and hour – and mama got the dishes caught up!
