Playdough and Goop

I finally got around to making playdough for Destructo.  I want to make some in each of the primary colors, but ran out of baking soda before I could do blue and green.  I guess those will have to be for tomorrow and by tomorrow I most likely mean Tuesday since I will probably be off then.

I used the second recipe from this post.  It is basically one cup baking soda, 1/2 cup corn starch, and 3/4 cup water plus food coloring.  You mix the three ingredients and heat it on medium stirring constantly.  You want to heat it just until it starts really balling up and then stop.   The red was kind of crumbly because I heated it just slightly too long.  They yellow was perfect.

I decided to go with this recipe because it doesn't contain tons of salt which could possibly be toxic if your child decided to eat the entire amount of playdough.  I don't plan on letting that happen with Destructo, but he did get his name for a reason.  I am going to store it in the fridge in ziplocks just to extend its life.

I also made "goop."  I used to make this as a sensory activity for the kids at the daycare when I worked there.  It is just corn starch and water (equal parts) with a little food coloring mixed in.  But for whatever reason this particular batch didn't seem to work so I added a bit more corn starch and now it is working great.  It is a lot of fun to play with and can be a liquid and a solid.  I keep it in a ziplock baggie for nice and clean sensory play. 

For any of my readers with older kids, I found this link that can turn making goop (or ooze as the page calls it) into a science activity.

Liquid or Solid?

I will get some pictures up of Destructo playing with his playdough in the next day or two.  We had company over most of the day, so I didn't end up getting the playdough out.  He did play with the goop, but was pretty distracted by the little boy who was over.