Fresh Herb Playdough Activity {Easy Smells Divine!}
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While shopping at the grocery store recently (for homemade pizza ingredients, yum!) we spotted some fresh herbs and knew we had to include them in an activity.
Since we are such playdough fans, (have you tried our lavender playdough or lemon playdough?) we settled on fresh herb playdough.
Read on to discover how we incorporated fresh herbs along with our homemade playdough to create the perfect invitation to play.
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What You’ll Need
- 1 cup flour
- 2-3 tablespoons cream of tarter
- 1/4 cup salt
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1 cup water
- Cooking pot
- Wooden mixing spoon
- Fresh herbs (we used rosemary and thyme)
- Scissors
- Playdough accessories
- Silicone cupcake liners
- Divided tray (optional)
What to Do
Begin by whipping up a batch of our one-pot playdough:
Mix the following ingredients together in a cooking pot:
- 1 cup flour
- 2-3 tablespoons cream of tarter
- 1/4 cup salt
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1 cup water
Once all the ingredients have been mixed, cook them over medium heat while mixing continuously. The playdough mixture will start melting down and then, after a few minutes, it will start to ball up and pull away from the sides of the pot (and your arm muscles will start to ache!); that’s when you know your dough is cooked. It’s okay if some areas are still a bit sticky looking.
For the most part, however, it should look like playdough.
Once the playdough has cooled, knead it a bit and then place it in your divided tray along with the other materials and allow your child to play.
I don’t know if it was the scent of the herbs, the fact that they got to do some cutting, or maybe the combination of the two, but they were SO excited about this set-up! We’ll admit we were pretty excited too!
Or, make our no-cook playdough using a stand mixer – SO EASY!!
It’s always so fun to see what they come up with while exploring and playing! First they decided to cut up the herbs. Our oldest cut her herbs into a cupcake liner.
We like to reuse things from around the house as much as we can for our craft projects or activities and these little glass jars that once held different flavors of salt have become a staple in our play kitchen.
Our younger one used these to hold all her herb cuttings.
Once the herbs were cut, they sprinkled them on top of the playdough.
Then the younger one decided that if sprinkling was fun, pouring would be even better!
Once they had sprinkled and poured the herbs on the playdough, they mixed it all up a bit and rolled out their dough. The texture of the herb playdough was really neat and made for a great sensory activity!
They weren’t anywhere near being done yet though! Next up, herb muffins! It’s smelling pretty good in the room now!
The kids (okay, the parents too!) really enjoyed pressing the herbs into the playdough to make imprints.
They even made little herb forests! The creative possibilities with this homemade herb playdough are truly endless!
And then the aftermath … 🙂
We then moved to the kitchen to make some fresh rosemary bread. We’ll share details of that adventure next time. Until then, if you enjoyed this post, please share it! Or, pin for later.
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Alison
Monday 12th of September 2022
How much playdough does this make? Thanks!
The Art Kit
Friday 28th of October 2022
Hi! It makes a good amount of playdough! We usually make a batch or two per child. :)
Michelle
Friday 26th of August 2016
That looks so easy and fun! Since herbs have beneficial qualities, I could see where this could have some other benefits as well, such as stimulating, or calming. Seems like Rosemary is supposed to be good for memory, if I remember correctly. Maybe lavender would be good near nap- or bedtime.
The Art Kit
Tuesday 30th of August 2016
You are right! Rosemary is great for memory and clarity. Did you see our post on lavender playdough? It really did relax us and we also thought that would be a great activity to do near bedtime! Great minds think alike! :)
Here's the link to our lavender playdough if you wanted to check it out: https://www.theartkitblog.com/calming-lavender-playdough-recipe-lavender-seed-mix-ins/ :)
Barbara Radisavljevic
Friday 26th of August 2016
This activity leaves a lot of room for creativity. I never would have thought of adding the herbs.
The Art Kit
Sunday 28th of August 2016
Thank you! We had a lot of fun with this set-up!