The Best Homemade Fall Scented Playdough Recipe for preschoolers and toddlers!
My daughter loves playdough so much that I found myself at the store almost every single week purchasing new playdough for her in different colors and textures.
Instead of having to run this oh-so-special errand every week, I decided that I would involve her in making her own playdough with as many clean ingredients as possible.
This Homemade Fall Scented Playdough recipe is made with essential oils.
We make it twice a week for her because she loves it that much, plus when we make it, I know exactly what’s in it.
Well, all I have to say is that I have created a monster because that is how we came about this fun recipe!
She asked if we could do some fun fall play dough, well she specifically wanted pumpkin playdough so that she could create mini pumpkins, and of course when she said that, my mind just started whirling with fun fall playdough recipes! Including ideas to use some of our essential oils with!
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Ingredients Needed To Make Homemade Playdough
The ingredients below will make 1 ball of play dough.
- 1 cup of flour per scent of playdough
- 1/2 Cup of salt
- 2 teaspoons of cream of tartar
- 1 cup of boiling water
- 2 Tablespoons of vegetable oil
- Food coloring (red, brown, orange)
Playdough Autumn Scents
- Apple Pie Playdough – 1/2 Teaspoon of Apple Pie Spice
- Pumpkin Pie Playdough – 1/2 Teaspoon of Pumpkin Spice, Nutmeg, and All Spice
- Cinnamon Playdough – 1-2 drops of Cinnamon Bark Essential Oils
How To Make Homemade Scented Playdough
Making your own playdough can be fun and a bit messy, but that’s why you have your kids help along. They love the messy part when it comes to making your own playdough. The instructions below will make one batch of playdough for one scent.
- In a pot boil 1 cup of water, if you are making multiple batches I would go ahead and boil 5-6 cups of water to save time.
- Add all your flour, salt, cream of tartar, and apple or pumpkin spice in a bowl.
- Mix well.
- In a separate bowl add 4-6 drops of food coloring depending on the scent you are working on. We did red for the apple pie scent, yellow for the pumpkin pie scent, and brown for the cinnamon playdough scent.
- Add your oil to the bowl of food coloring.
- Once your food coloring and vegetable oil are all mixed together, go ahead and pour the hot water into the bowl with your flour and other ingredients.
- Mix well until all ingredients are combined.
Tip: I think it works best when you use your hands. Don’t worry, the hot water cools down pretty quickly. BUT, be very careful with the boiling hot water and the kids!
Knead together on a parchment or wax paper to keep from sticking.
Once it has cooled off the kids can join in.
- Repeat for all the other scents and colors you would like to make.
Why Make Your Own Playdough?
Now that my girls are a little older I don’t have the fear of them eating or tasting the playdough.
Young kids are curious, and I prefer to use a playdough recipe that I know is safe, and I know precisely the ingredients that were used to create the playdough.
By making your own playdough, not only will you know what your playdough is made from, but it allows you to be more creative as well.
Make playdough of different colors, and use essential oils and food spices to add some amazing smells to your playdough naturally.
This is perfect for seasons and holidays!
The Importance of Sensory and Imaginative Play For Kids
There are so many factors when it comes to allowing children to play with playdough for sensory purposes and imaginative play.
Here are a few reasons we should allow our kids to use playdough starting at a young age. (Don’t worry, I wasn’t a playdough mom at first either)
- Helps with fine motor skills.
- Strengthens dexterity which is essential for writing, using scissors, and drawing.
- Develops comprehension and listening skills. Especially when you repeat yourself ten times so that your child doesn’t eat the playdough.
- Encourages dramatic and imaginative play. I always suggest allowing children to play with natural things like leaves and sticks, but there are so many other ways as well.
- They gain curiosity for life and things.
- Teaches children to play alone without electronics.
My girls decided they wanted to go outside and pick up some leaves and sticks to create apples and pumpkins.
They had so much fun and honestly, I was just surprised by these two little girls’ imagination!
Here I thought they were just working on their sensory and fine motor skills, then it became so much more than that for them!
I hope that they don’t lose that love of nature and the wild imagination that they both have!
Just listening to them talk and create scenarios is just absolutely brilliant, if I do say so myself!
Make sure to also check out our Playdough Recipe inspired by Pixie Hallow and Tinkerbell herself and to of course follow me on Pinterest for more fun craft activities like these!
I know that my girls absolutely love making things from scratch and getting their hands dirty, so I know that your kiddos and you will enjoy it as well.
Just be careful, you might just love it so much that you find yourself making playdough of every color, scent, and texture imaginable!
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If you loved this Homemade Fall Playdough Recipe, then you will also love the following Fall articles I have put together for you:
Have you tried making your own playdough recipes?
*Originally published on August 2016*
