Color Surprise Rainbow Playdough

Spring Activities for Kids - Making Color Surprise Playdough

We're back with more spring activities for kids, a month long series with Jaime of FSPDT.  Last week we made homemade mud paint using real mud!  The theme for this week is homemade playdough.  We've been slightly obsessed with rainbows lately and in desperate need of a new batch of playdough.  Instead of deciding on one color of playdough I decided to make an entire rainbow of playdough colors!  Better yet, my boys had so much fun with the color surprise eruptions we made last summer that I decided to make color surprise playdough, using this method from Teach Preschool.

How to Make Color Surprise Rainbow Playdough

This post contains affiliate links. Here is my full disclosure policy.

Supplies:

• flour
• hot water
• cream of tartar
• liquid watercolor paint or food coloring
• vegetable oil
• salt

First I made seven batches of my favorite playdough recipe.  For each batch I combined 1 cup flour, 1/4 cup salt, 1 teaspoon cream of tartar, and 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in my Kitchenaid mixer.  I used the dough hook and mixed the ingredients on a medium low speed.  I added 3/4 cup boiling water and let the Kitchenaid do its magic.  Occasionally it is necessary to use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl.  After a few minutes the playdough should be well mixed and ready.

Next I used my finger to press a hole in each batch of playdough, and then I filled the hole with liquid watercolor paint and carefully covered the hole with playdough.

The boys had been playing while I mixed the playdough, so they had no idea that there were hidden colors inside.  I set each color on a baking dish to contain all the color and invited the boys to play.

Color surprise playdough is an excellent activity to boost fine motor skills.

The playdough needs to be mashed and mixed well to show the color.

JZ (6) got into it the most, and he was determined to mix the color evenly.

Peanut (32 months) actually cried a bit when the yellow color shot out of his playdough.  Once he realized it was intentional and all he had to do was mix he settled down a bit.

As you can see, this can be quite a messy activity.  The good news is that liquid watercolors wash away easily.  Here are tips for messy play as well as laundry tips to avoid stains and keep clothes bright.

The younger three boys mashed their playdough for awhile before tiring, leaving JZ and me to finish mixing in all the color.

For more playdough recipes follow me on Pinterest.

Be sure to see Jaime's Sunflower Playdough Recipe.

More Spring Activities for Kids:

Mud Paint Recipe

Rainbow Spring Sensory Paints