# Cloud Dough with Play Dough Sprinkles
> Mix flour and baby oil into moldable cloud dough for messy outdoor sensory and pretend play. Kids build castles, cakes and ice cream cones, then top them with fake sprinkles made from crumbled dried-out play dough.
- URL: https://www.funlittles.com/cloud-doh-play-doh/
- Ages: 2–6 yrs · Difficulty: easy · Mess: high
- Time: prep 20 min, activity 30 min
- Works for: one-on-one, small group, whole class · one batch serves about 2 kids
- Skills: sensory-exploration, pretend-play, fine-motor, scooping-and-pouring, shapes
- Cautions: wheat-gluten, ingestion-risk

## Materials (one batch)
- 8 cup All-purpose flour (household)
- 1 cup Baby oil
- 1 piece Tray, bin or plastic wading pool
- Dried-out play dough (optional)
- 1 piece Food processor (optional) (household)
- 1 piece Measuring spoons (household)
- 1 piece Cookie scoop (household)
- Sand molds
- Straws (household)
- Cups (household)
- Paper for ice cream cones (optional) (household)
- Toy figures and props (princesses, animals, toy flags) (optional)

## Safety
- Not taste-safe: baby oil and raw flour should not be eaten. Supervise closely with kids who still mouth things.
- Flour dust can get in eyes and hair. Keep the dough in the bin and stop any throwing.
- Spilled flour and oil make floors slippery. Play outside or over a sheet you can shake out.
- Adult runs the food processor to make the sprinkles.
- Small toy figures and play dough crumbs can be choking hazards for toddlers. Supervise at all times.
- Flour and most play dough contain wheat. Check for wheat or gluten allergies before play.

## Before you start
- Gather dried-out play dough. An adult runs it in the food processor to make fake sprinkles.
- Roll paper into ice cream cones.
- Set up the tray, bin or kiddie pool outside.

## Steps
1. Put the tray, bin or kiddie pool outside.
2. Pour 8 cups of flour into the bin and add 1 cup of baby oil.
3. Mix with your hands until the flour holds together when you squeeze it. Add a little more oil if it won't mold.
4. Feel the cloud dough: pour it between your hands, let it fall through your fingers, and hide your hands in it.
5. Pack cups and molds to build castles. Then smash them!
6. Flatten the dough and set up toy figures, walls and straw fences for pretend play.
7. Pack scoops, measuring spoons and molds to make cakes and cookies.
8. Top your cakes with fake play dough sprinkles.
9. Scoop cloud dough balls into paper cones to make ice cream, and add sprinkles.

## Tips
- This activity SHOULD be done outside, I mean really. It is such a messy delight.
- Start small with a tray or bin. Some moms put the whole setup in a kiddie pool, which is pretty smart.
- Vary the baby oil to adjust the dough to your preferences.
- Sprinkles really do it for the kids, and the fake ones are a cheaper alternative.
- I'm always cleaning up dried play dough bits from under the couch, the table and the bed. We just put them to use this time!
- Rules like 'keep the stuff inside' go right over a toddler's head, so expect flour on the ground.
- With friends over, the cloud dough play lasted longer than usual.
- One reader said the first time she made cloud dough, she didn't see her children for hours. (from readers)

## The original post by TurkeyMom (2012)

This activity SHOULD be done outside, I mean really. It is such a messy delight for kids that it is a sin to deprive the kids of such a fun activity.

1. All purpose Flour
2. Baby Oil
3. Container
4. Whatever props you think your kid would enjoy

1. 8 Cups of all purpose flour
2. 1 cup baby oil.

You can vary the baby oil quantity to adjust to your preferences. Just mix the stuff with your hands to get the flour to a moldable consistency. Make sure you have the stuff in a tray, bin or at times a plastic wading pool. I have seen moms who have had the entire set up in a kiddie pool- pretty smart. For me, trial activities start small. Big A started off with just feeling the texture of the cloud dough by pouring them between her hands and getting the flour to fall through her fingers. The girls hid their hands in the cloud dough and had fun finding them. Slowly they got very excited that they had to play their usual game “ It is raining… It is raining flour, it is raining flour.

1. measuring spoons
2. cookie scoop
3. sand molds
4. straws
5. cups

They started off with making flour castles and smashing them quickly.

 

Then Big A flattened out the cloud dough and started setting up her animals in there. As of today, the appeal of the animals was low and the princess were ranking much higher. A cloud dough wall was set up and two camps of princess stood on the opposite sides waiting to fight apparently! These are the types who don’t lift their pinkies.





Major pretend play there. Lots of imaginary story lines from Big A while baby A was content scooping, pouring and mixing while occasionally complaining about the cloud dough which lands on her head. Big A claims that it is accident. Yeah right, when it happens 4 times in 5 minutes I doubt it. Once a princess battles were over, the scene swiftly moved to the ubiquitous baking area. With cups and scoops galore, it was only natural we made cakes and ice creams. A few pieces from her picnic set were used to create different cookie shapes. I tried getting baby A to notice the different shapes, but to no avail. She was super busy purposefully pouring the cloud dough on the ground. Rules like “Keep the stuff inside” goes over her head. Ah well, she has time to muck around with geometry. Right about now, throwing cloud dough back at Big A for revenge seems to be the only thing on her mind. Big A on the other hand was into creating different shapes and smashing them I hasten to add because she still enjoys the latter when it comes to messy play. Legos and wooden logs are a whole different issue where a diligently constructed model should stay there undisturbed by her sister until she is ready to let them go. She did make a quite a few cakes with large amounts of sprinkles on them.

 

Here are the cloud dough sweets all prettified with play dough sprinkles. Read further to see how we made our own our own fake sprinkles.





  The fake sprinkles - they are just dried out play dough.

***Here is what I did for fake sprinkles..*** Gather all the dried out play dough and run it in the food processor to get this.



Anyway, we elaborated on the ice cream scene with paper cones and dried out play dough. The cloud dough made amazing ice cream scoops.

 

I have to mention that we played with a few of Big A’s friends and one of her friends seemed more interested in the ice cream cone than the any of the girls. Here are his cones



The girls had by now scurried off inside Big A’s room to play. But the one guy stayed outside with me to make more cool stuff. Like this awesome igloo



It was a blast! Since we had friends over, the cloud dough play lasted a longer time than the usual. Shared on [It's Playtime](http://www.handsonaswegrow.com) [Momnivore's Dilemma](http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/) [Notimeforflashcards](http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/) [Friday Frugal Fun](http://sunhatsandwellieboots.com/)