Shake-to-Make Pumpkin Pie Play Dough

Happy Halloween!

I saw a couple of similar recipes for edible, gluten-free play dough that smells like pumpkin pie! Yum! I had to try making some off this stuff with my kiddos. We love play dough and ANYTHING pumpkin. My only concern was the mess! I try to always put my OCD ways aside for the sake of sensory play and creativity, but of course I'll usually consider how to do something and make the least mess possible. 

I hatched this quick idea to mix up the play dough in a gallon sized zip bag and it worked out beautifully! Try it yourself and let me know how it worked for you. :)

You'll need:

-corn starch

-a can of pumpkin

-pumpkin pie spices

-a gallon sized, zip top bag 

We simply emptied the entire can of pumpkin into the bag and added our spices. We spiced "to scent" and just let the kids squish it all together, opening the bag to take a delicious whiff here and there. It's a great way to discuss 'more' and 'less' - you'll see that comes up again as we add the corn starch!

Next, we sprinkled in corn starch about a half cup at a time. We ended up using about 3 cups of corn starch total but you might need more or less (told ya) depending on the desired consistency. 

In between pours of corn starch the kids took turns (sharing miraculously) enjoying the squishy sensory fun of combining the pumpkin spice mixture with the corn starch. We watched it become doughy and removed the play dough from the bag when we were ready to play. 

It smelled like freshly baked pumpkin pie, and I'm sure that it would probably taste great too. Thankfully my children have already made healthy habits of not eating play dough (one of them might have learned the hard way - yuck ;) ) so I didn't encourage them to taste it - but it would have been perfectly fine to eat!

I laid a piece of tin foil out for a minimized mess - trust me, it did get messy though - and we were sure to lay down a coating of corn starch before playing. We also dusted our hands in corn starch and used plastic cutlery to play. Some Halloween sequins, beads, buttons, gems, or figurines would also be tons of fun to play with while mashing and molding this fun play dough. 

I think we'll make this one again around Thanksgiving when we discuss the First Thanksgiving and harvest themes. It was a hit!

~Sarah