Since we LOVE sensory play activities at our house and since the weather is getting cooler, we decided to start celebrating Fall a little early and make some pumpkin scented cloud dough.
If you’ve never heard of cloud dough, let me let you in on a little secret: It’s amazing!
It’s soft and powdery, but also squishy and moldable. And since it’s so versatile, you can scoop it, pour it, sift it, shape it, mold it, and even use cookie cutters with it!
It’s seriously so much fun that even I can’t keep my hands out of it! Hey, moms need sensory play in their life, too!
Because sensory play is all about engaging the senses, what better way than to make something smell good? That’s why we chose to scent our cloud dough with pumpkin! It smelled so good that we couldn’t keep our noses out of it!
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Ingredients:
- 4 cups of flour
- 1/2 cup of canola or vegetable oil
- 3 pieces of orange sidewalk chalk
- Pumpkin Pie spice {found in the spice aisle at any local grocery store}
Crush your 3 pieces of orange sidewalk chalk by placing them in a baggie and just using a hammer to smash them. You want your chalk in powder form. If you don’t have orange chalk, you can also use orange tempera power paint.
In your designated sensory bin, pour the flour in and then add the oil. I find that the best ratio for the best cloud dough is 1/2 cup oil to every 4 cups of flour. Knead the flour and oil together.
After mixing the flour and oil, pour in your crushed sidewalk chalk to make your cloud dough orange.
Once everything is mixed, add in the pumpkin pie spice until the flour is scented like pumpkin pie! There’s no exact measurement, so just keep adding until the scent is just right for your kids.
Then it’s time to PLAY! You can add whatever you’d like to your cloud dough. I like to give tools to scoop with such as an ice cream scoop or spoon, as well as cups, bowls, and shovels.
I added some small pumpkins and acorns to ours to keep with the fall theme. These were found at Hobby Lobby for 40% off!
I also included a pumpkin shaped cookie cutter. I found this cookie cutter at Walmart for .97, and I love it because it’s plastic, which is safer for your preschooler to play with than the metal ones.
Mason loved making sandcastles with his cloud dough. Since it’s moldable it’s easy to mold into the shape of a cup…
He rolled the dough into balls and made pumpkin muffins. I added in some paper muffin cups.
The ice cream scoop was fun for him to use and he scooped out lots of pumpkin ice cream! Seriously, who doesn’t love pumpkin ice cream?!
One reason I love sensory play activities is because of the language you can hear blossoming and mostly because I love watching little hands play!
Mason really enjoyed his pumpkin scented cloud dough and played for almost 2 hours!
To enhance your pumpkin cloud dough experience even more, you could:
- add real pumpkin seeds to your play
- add real acorns to the bucket
- add some nutmeg or cinnamon for extra scent
I hope your little one loves playing with their pumpkin cloud dough!
What are some items you like to include in your sensory bins?
Some other sensory play activities you may like:
Erica Leggiero, M.S. Ed.
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I love watching little hands play too. I’ve never made cloud dough, but this looks (and I bet smells) so good that I think I might just give it a try. My daughter will love it! pinning!
Just something special about watching those little hands play 🙂 Your daughter and YOU will love this! I could play with cloud dough for hours! Thanks for reading! HUGS!
How neat is that! I’ll definitely have to try it when my grandson comes to visit. Your little guy looks like he’s having a lot of fun!
Thank you Lani! It really is fun!
This is such a neat idea! Pinned it to my Halloween Pinterest Board 🙂
Thank you Amanda!
Okay. Coloring the dough with sidewalk chalk is genius. Pinning!
Thanks Selena! 🙂
My kids love to play with cloud dough. We’ll have to try out this pumpkin version. Thanks!
Thanks for reading Jodie!
My first experience with Cloud Dough was such a total mess (and I usually don’t care about messes) that I kind of swore it off. But- anything pumpkin scented I’m willing to give another shot. Never would have thought to use chalk for coloring either. Great post!
Oh darn Amy! Sorry to hear that it was a mess! Was it messy making it or just the process of the kids playing with it? Yes, I love using chalk as coloring. Food coloring is water based and that doesn’t mix well with the vegetable oil added to cloud dough 😉 But, you live and you learn!
What a great idea! Sensory bins are so fun to play with…I mean watch the kids play with 🙂
I can’t keep my hands out of them! And I’m 30 years old, LOL!
I have never heard of this before, but it seems pretty cool, like playing in sand. Suppose it is an outdoor only type of activity, or with lots of plastic underneath at a table.
Yes, it’s definitely messy. We usually play with it outside 🙂
So much fun! Those mini pumpkins are adorable 😉
Thanks for sharing at #Pintorials
My 4 year old loves cloud dough and it’s one of the things she asks to play with frequently. This pumpkin cloud dough looks fantastic!
Oh, I love that Susen! I hope she enjoys this pumpkin dough! Thanks for reading 🙂
Could you tell me how long would cloud dough last please?
Hi Marcy! It should last a good amount of time. Our last batch of cloud dough lasted for 3 months. I store ours in a rubbermaid container with a lid. You should run out before it goes bad 🙂 It’s messy!
Do you think this would work with gluten free flour?
Hi Sara! I think it would work with gluten free flour, for sure! I would try a small amount (maybe 1 cup) of flour at first, just to make sure. If you do decide to try it, let me know how it works!
So fluffy and fantastic! You have me wanting to play with some. 😉