Caroline
Welcome to the second edition of the 12 Months of Sensory Dough Series, all about Cloud Dough. This week we have been having a ball learning all about Earthworms. My daughter is pretty fearless and loves hands on learning so I decided what better way to explore worms than to let her dig for them in Cocoa Scented Cloud Dough.
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Ingredients:
- 6 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour
- 1 1/2 cups Cocoa
- 2 cups Vegetable Oil
Instructions:
1. Combine flour and cocoa
Combine the Flour and Cocoa in a large container. You can see the size of container we used pictured above. Use a large spoon or spatula to stir and combine the two ingredients together as best you can. My daughter helped with the entire process.
2. Add vegetable oil and use the large spoon to mix all together
Add the vegetable oil and use the large spoon to mix together the majority of the oil into the flour mixture. You won’t be able to mix the entire thing together with the spoon, but using the spoon helps to avoid your hands from being completely saturated by the oil. Finish mixing the dough together with your hands, trying to incorporate the oil into as much of the flour as you can. Cloud Dough is very forgiving. If you feel like more oil is needed, add more oil. If you want to add more flour, add more flour. Just work with it until you reach your desired consistency. Since we were going for a muddy, dirt consistency our recipe uses more oil than most recipes do. The dough molds together nicely, yet crumbles easily.
The Worms
I wanted our worms to be as realistic as possible so I went to the fishing department to find my worms. You have to be careful when purchasing worms because there are some that have added chemicals and salts to them to attract the fish. Don’t buy those! Read the packages very carefully! I just purchased the straight plastic worms that hadn’t been injected with any salts or chemicals.
(Disclaimer: The package I purchased contained lead weights in it which is dangerous for children. If you purchase a kit that contains lead, immediately discard of the lead materials to avoid any potential hazardous and health risks to your children. Also, since there was lead in the kit and because the worms came a little slimy, I thoroughly soaked and washed all of the worms in dishwasher soap before using them with my daughter.)
After washing the worms my daughter helped me cut all the dangly ends off the worms to make them more realistic. This was awesome cutting practice! Now we were all ready to get playing!
Digging for Worms Play
My daughter and I each took turns hiding the worms in the dirt and then my daughter dug through the dirt to find all the worms. I put a little container on the side for her to put all the worms in after she found them. If that smile on her face doesn’t show you how fun this activity was, then I don’t know what will!
Hiding all 40 worms was quite the challenge so it was fun to play along with my daughter to see if we could get every worm completely covered in dirt.
This activity can get messy so make sure to do it in an area in the home that the floor can be easily swept and mopped, or do it outside.
I have to forewarn you that this Cloud Dough pretty much smells like the most amazing chocolate cake ever in existence. I’ve been opening up the container all day today just to smell it’s awesomeness! Hahaha!
