Indoor Activity – Snow Dough

In searching for good indoor toddler activities, I found an infinite number of snow dough recipes and loved the idea.  There are so many fun things to do with snow dough for the winter season and Christmas!  Also, it is super easy and quick to make, which scores major points in this mom game I’ve been playing.

Because Jelly Bean still wants to experience everything with her tongue, I made a taste-safe recipe using 8 parts flour and 1 part vegetable oil.  You can stir these ingredients together, use a masher, or use your hands, which I obviously chose the latter.

 

Once mixed, I threw the snow dough into a baking pan and then on top of a plastic sheet covering our kitchen floor.  If your little love is as messy as mine, you will want to throw down a mess mat, a shower curtain, or plastic sheeting as we did.  If your kiddos are a bit older, then they might be able to contain the snow dough in the pan.

I also introduced some cookie cutters, Jello Jiggler molds, and a bowl (this one on accident) into the mix.  My items were centered around Christmas, but you could use almost anything.  For example, I envision an indoor sand castle contest in the future when it is too cold, and the kids are missing summer!

In the beginning, Jelly Bean was only interested in placing the cookie cutters into the bowl and then back into the pan.  She is very into “in” right now and is always wanting to put items into containers (gross motor skills).  The next thing she did was take a pinch of dough and plop it into her mouth before I could say, “shoooy!”  (sensory – taste)  Once Ellie saw mommy “making cookies,” she wanted in on the faux-baking action.

Jelly Bean also thoroughly enjoyed “making it snow.”  She snowed all over her feet, then my legs, the bowl, the dogs, and anything else that needed a little frosting (great sensory activity).  Thank goodness for that plastic sheeting!

The snow dough impressed me more than I thought it would.  It is powdery like snow (especially because we stuck ours in the freezer for a while) but held together when compacted.  This was great for our cookies, jello jiggler molds (which again made me think sandcastle!), and even an indoor snowman!  I also adored how much Ellie got into it… literally INTO it!  this is why there aren’t many pictures of actual play… we got MESSY!