Play Based Recipes

Recipes for Making a Mess

• Rainbow Gloop/Oobleck

Cornflour

Food colouring/dye.

You may or may not wish to dilute the colouring with water, but we love the intensity of the coloured oobleck/gloop you get with undiluted colour source.

Add liquid colouring in small amounts to cornflour until you have desired consistency. Our favourite is that perfect point where it is liquid when left to run and solid under pressure.

Our tamariki LOVE this when you make 4 – 6 different colours and pour them separately into a water table or similar (we use a plastic fish bin). Great for making rainbows – pick up and pour/drip one colour into a pool of a different colour. Because of the consistency, the colours stay side by side. It actually takes quite a bit of effort to mix them into new colours. Great effects within the tray. Fabulous to drip down arms and torsos (the colour DOES stain the skin but not for more than a day or two….).

• Mud

Nothing better than a decent sized, well-watered mud puddle. Either naturally formed or dig your own. Can be used with plastic animals, vehicles, whole body immersion. And of course, the ubiquitous Mud Kitchen.

• 3D Gelatine

Make up gelatine using a variety of containers and colouring it with food colouring. Colour can be solid or if it will be kept quite still while setting, you can create a rainbow effect with multi colours at once. We found best containers were the ones used for baking slices, rectangular and about 3cm deep. Once set, you can lay out whole sheets or cut or tear into “blocks”. May pay to experiment with essential oils for smell as some children don’t like the smell of gelatine.

• Paper making

Using old newspapers etc, tear them into small pieces. Place in hot water to soak for half an hour or so. Add colour or texture (with leaves etc) if desired. Use a whisk or stick blender or the children’s willing hands to create “mush”. You can either make paper by spreading the mush onto a screen (many sets of instructions online) or experiment with creating 3D sculptures with it.

RECIPES FOR PLAY

• Basic Playdough

3 Cups flour, 1 ½ Cups salt, 6 tsp cream of tartar, 3 Tbsp cooking oil, 3 C boiling water

Mix the dry ingredients then add oil and boiling water. Stir well until mixture leaves the sides of the bowl then turn out and knead, adding more water or flour as needed.

Colour with paint/powder paint/food colouring etc

• Silky soft Playdough

1 cup conditioner (the cheaper the better)

2 cups cornflour

• Moon Sand

8 cups flour

1 cup baby oil (or vegetable oil)

Some glitter/colour if desired.

• Foam

1/3 water

1/3 dishwashing liquid

1 Tbsp cornflour

Some colour if desired.

• Edible Sludge

3 ½ tsp of gelatine powder dissolved in 2 cups of hot water

¾ cup of chia seeds

Add 1 ½ cold water mix it all up than add 3 cups of cornflour and

1 cup of flour

Food colour (optional)

Chill mixture in fridge over night to help the gelatine to set.

• Dinosaur Dirt (Sand Foam)

3 cups Sand

1 can shaving foam / cream

• Cloud dough

8 cups flour

1 cup of oil

• Gloop 1 (variety of versions)

2 cups cornflour

1 cup water

(food colouring if desired)

Gloop 2

Mix 4 cups sand and 2 cups cornflour well than add

1 cup water

2 Tbsp powder paint

Some glitter/colour if desired.

Gloop 3

4 cups cornflour

¾ -1 cup vegetable oil

Some glitter/colour if desired.

Gloop 4

Cornflour

Shaving cream

Mix to desired consistency.

Some glitter/colour if desired.

• Pavement Paint

1/2C Cornflour

½ tsp powdered dye

½ C water

Combine all ingredients and stir to smooth consistency.

Paints on wet like paint and dries to chalk.

• Mud dough

2 cups of mud

2cups of sand

½ cup of salt

Mix all the above together and add enough water to make it pliable.

• Flubber

Mix 1 TB spoon of Psyllium husk powder and 1 cup of water in large microwave proof bowl (& food colouring). Stir and then microwave for 5-6 mins on high. Stir a couple of times during cooking process.

• Slime

1 cup of soap flakes

4 cups of hot water

Dissolve soap flakes in the hot water. Leave to stand for at least an hour. The mixture will froth up if beaten and will pour easily.

The mixture is extreme slimy and slippery!!

• Finger-paint

2 C cornflour, 1 C cold water, 4-5 C boiling water, 1/4C soap flakes (optional)

Mix cornflour and cold water together in a large bowl until all the cornflour is suspended. Trickle in 4-5 cups of boiling water (straight from the jug, preferably) while stirring and beat until the mixture “grabs”. Stir thoroughly until the mixture is smooth, thick and translucent.

Add the soap flakes if desired and keep stirring. Carefully add more water if the mixture seems too thick. The finished finger-paint should pour slowly and keep its shape briefly when moulded or patterned with fingers.

If the mixture doesn’t “grab”, add a bit more cornflour and microwave it for a couple of minutes. Don’t worry if it is lumpy, it’s another exciting texture.

You can add colour with glitter, paint, food colouring/dye or tempera paint powder.

• Bubble mixture

1 part dish washing liquid

2 parts water

1 Tbsp, glycerine per ½ litre of water

Mix together, stirring slowly, making sure not to make bubbles in the mixture.

Easy homemade bubble wands – wire or twisty ties bent into shape, shapes cur from lids of plastic containers, cotton reels or any plastic tubes, plastic rings held with a spring clip peg, your fingers……