Friday, July 04, 2014

Sand Foam Sensory Dough Recipe for Kids

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Looking for sensory play recipes? Then you'll definitely want to try this awesome sand foam sensory dough recipe. It's perfect for a beach themed sensory activity or even a construction sensory bin.

My kids love to play with all sorts of doughs, including play dough. You just don't see me sharing many play dough related activities here on the blog. That's all.

However, we do like to experiment with a variety of textures and sensory materials when it comes to play dough. And sometimes we end up creating our own sensory dough recipes.

Like this awesome sand foam sensory dough recipe that uses only three ingredients. 

So go grab some play sand and get ready for some quick and easy sensory play because you're definitely going to want to whip up a batch of this beach sand dough. 

How to make sand foam sensory dough for kids


How to Make Sand Foam Sensory Dough

Like I mentioned, you only need three ingredients to make this sand foam dough. Here's what you'll need:

  • 1 cup of shaving cream - This was leftover from a previous sensory activity
  • 1/3 cup of clean play sand - You could even try colored play sand!
  • 2/3 cup of corn starch (corn flour in the UK) - This will help transform the play sand and shaving cream into a moldable play sand type of dough
Your kids can easily help make this sand dough recipe. Just mixing it all up is a great sensory experience on its own. 

To make the dough, simply mix all of the ingredients together until the mixture is able to form into a ball. Then it's ready for play.

Close up of sand dough with seashell

Your Kids are Going to Love this Shaving Cream Foam Sand Dough!

The texture of this sensory dough is so cool. It's somewhat crumbly, yet also smooth. It can also be molded into shapes, behaving similarly to cloud dough and even regular kinetic sand. But yet it has that creamy texture of shaving cream too.

I decided to set up an ocean themed invitation to play for my kids using this new sand foam sensory dough. So I placed the dough on a blue plastic tray. I was going for that beach/ocean vibe after all so needed something to look like water. Then I added some seashells and some ocean creature figurines. 

Ocean themed invitation to play using sand foam sensory dough

My oldest J really loved to press the shells into the sand foam dough, which left really neat shell prints in the dough. I'm glad I included a variety of different shells for him to stamp with.

Stamping seashells into homemade sand dough

He continued to spread the sand out more and more, eventually creating more of a beach to stamp things in. Both him and my youngest K did some more stamping, not only with the shells, but with the different ocean toys too.

Stamping seashells into DIY sand dough

Sand dough recipe with seashells on a blue tray

My youngest K wasn't as interested in the seashells as J was. Instead, he preferred to play with the foam dough more than anything. He loved to squish it with his hands, scoop it up, and roll it into balls. He kept asking me to take pictures of all his little rolled creations. Of course, I obliged because he was so darn proud of making the balls all by himself. Don't worry though...I'm not going to bombard you with all of those photos.

Toddler playing with sand foam sensory dough

Toddler holding up a small ball of sand play dough

J also tried rolling the sand foam dough too, but he much preferred to make a loose ball to poke with shells. Or he would fill up the shells with the dough itself.

Playing with sand foam and seashells

Playing with sand dough and seashells

I really love how this sand foam sensory dough turned out. It's like a cross between play dough, kinetic sand, and cloud dough. The kids loved it and it was easy to make.

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