Cloud Dough with a Fizzy Surprise – Sensory Play with a Science Twist!
We love to experiment with sensory play, recipes and doughs. Doodles loves doing experiments and he asked if we could do a fizzy one today. Oodles wanted to make dough so I decided we could try and combine both.
What we used:
- 1 cup of flour
- 1 cup of baby oil
- food colouring
- 1 tbsp bicarbonate of soda
- vinegar
What we did:
- I gave Doodles and Oodles the ingredients and encouraged them to measure out what they needed by themselves.
- They then mixed the ingredients in a bowl before emptying onto the table to mix with their hands as if making breadcrumbs
- They loved the texture were delighted to see how easy it was to mould despite being crumbly.
- Today, I gave them some of their sand toys to use with the cloud dough – rakes, spades, beach themed moulds.
- They had great fun making star fish and crabs and a wall with the dough.
- When they were beginning to tire of playing with the cloud dough I produced the bottle of vinegar – we only had balsamic vinegar in the cupboard today but it works perfectly as does lemon juice.
- As soon as D saw the vinegar bottle he knew exactly what was coming and asked if he could pour it and surprise O!
- The reaction was perfect – very fizzy, very effective. They had so much fun repeatedly adding vinegar to little piles of cloud dough and watching the fizzy eruptions! (We have a great little video of it on our Facebook and Instagram pages.)
I love giving the kids scope to explore with the materials they are playing with. They both love sensory and messy play and Doodles in particular loves science activities particularly if he can make a reaction! It was great to hear him explaining to his little sister that “adding vinegar which is an acid to ‘carb of soda’ causes it to fizz…watch!”. Very cute!
Have fun!
Ciara x
Our Little House in the Country
Hi, I’m Ciara — writer, homemaker, and the heart behind Our Little House in the Country. I share slow, seasonal living from our cozy corner of the Irish countryside, where life is a little messy, a little magical, and deeply real. Whether it’s a teen-friendly recipe, a lived-in home moment, or a reminder to let go of perfection, this space is about embracing the everyday and finding joy in what’s already here. Come in, kick off your shoes, and stay a while — the kettle’s always on.
15 Comments
kateywrites
What a great idea! You are doing such a great job of letting the kids get messy and explore inn fun and safe ways. Love it.
ciwin22
Thank you, that’s such a lovely compliment! 🙂
ilovemummymost
Another fantastic activity for us to copy from you at some stage 🙂 I had never imagined doing some of these things with my kids so you have really opened my eyes to so much that we can do :)xx
ciwin22
Think I’m just a big kid at heart who loves to play especially messy play!!!! Xx
Emma T (@ETusty)
Great idea. Think I’ll have to get some of this out for N next rainy day
Paul Wandason
This is brilliant!!! How on earth do you think these ideas up?!!! 🙂
elliebearbabi
This is really brilliant! I will have to try with mini soon! #letkidsbekids
The Train Driver's Wife
An absolutely wonderful play idea as always? Thank you for sharing your inspiration
teentweentoddler1
This is great! Looks like lots of fun x
Christy Garrett (@upliftingfam)
I have wanted to try to make cloud dough for my youngest son to play with.
Let kids be kids
What a great colourful fun experimental play session. Messy play is always a winner, so when it fizzes too….fantastic!
Thanks for linking #LetKidsBeKids
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Totschooling (@Totschooling)
What a fun science experiment! Thanks for linking up to Love to Learn Linky!
ciwin22
Thank you! Great linky- so many fantastic posts each week!