In honor of National Play Dough Day, we are sharing our favorite play dough recipe and a few STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) activities that you and your toddler, preschool, or school-age child can do together.

Play Dough Recipe

Materials Needed

• Stock pot
• Large bowl
• 1 cup flour
• 2 tsp cream of tartar
• 1/2 cup salt
• 2 packets Kool-Aid
• 1 tsp vegetable oil
• 1 cup water

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients.
2. Add the vegetable oil and water to a stock pot. Mix together.
3. Add the dry ingredients to your pot and mix well.
4. Cook on medium heat until dough starts to form.
5. Once the dough begins to form, remove from the heat and let the dough cool.
6. After the dough has cooled, knead it into a ball.

STEAM Activities

STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) activities are not just for daycare classrooms, you can implement these simple activities at home, too, using a few household items.

Activity #1: Engineering Challenge

Help your child enhance their engineering skills with this fun building challenge.

Materials Needed

• Play dough
• Straws
• Duplo or LEGO bricks

Instructions

1. Challenge your child to see how tall she can build a structure using play dough, Duplos or LEGOS, and straws.
2. The challenge is to make sure the structure stands and does not fall over.

Activity #2: Ball Maze

Encourage your toddler, preschooler, or school-ager to create a ball maze.

Materials Needed

• Play dough
• Cookie sheet
• Small Balls

Instructions

1. Roll the play dough into strips and place onto the cookie sheet in a maze.
2. Identify a start and finish to the maze.
3. Place the ball at the start position
4. Hold the cookie sheet and tilt it to move the ball from the start of the maze to the end of the maze.
5. Encourage your child to create a new maze.

Have fun with these engineering challenges!