Surprise Play Dough Activity

My favorite way to begin the school year is with my Surprise Play Dough Activity! This is a magical and FUN way to start the school year. Read below to learn how you can do this in your classroom, too!

What is Surprise Play Dough?

Surprise play dough is really just white play dough with colored play dough in the center. When children squish and squeeze the dough, the dough begins to change to a color!

This is a fun activity because it is a surprise with which color you will get! You can even tell your students that this year is going to be amazing and filled with lots of fun surprises!

I added this little poem to the dough to make it more fun!

My play dough ball is plain and white.

What will happen if I squeeze it tight?

If a color should appear,

I will have a great school year!

You can grab my poem on the free printable below.

Ingredients for Surprise Play Dough

For this recipe, you’ll just need a handful of household ingredients.

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup salt
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil (or something similar)
• 1 tablespoon cream of tartar
• food coloring

How to Make Surprise Play Dough

This is such a simple recipe! Here is my favorite play dough recipe:

1. Mix all of the ingredients in a saucepan. Use a whisk to make sure everything mixes together nicely.
2. Place the saucepan on a stove and cook on medium heat.
3. Make sure to stir often to keep the dough from sticking to the pan.
4. Once the dough starts to form a ball on the pan, then the play dough is done!
5. Sprinkle some flour onto a cutting board and set the dough on top. Once it has cooled down slightly, start to knead the dough.
6. Split the dough in half and set one half aside.
7. The other half you will be coloring. Add a few drops of food coloring or liquid watercolors and knead it into the dough. If you don’t want to color your hands, you can use a silicone spatula to mix in the food coloring.

Setting up the Activity

To prepare for the activity, you’ll follow these steps:

Divide the white dough into three sections. Spread it out like a pancake using your hands or a rolling pin. Then take some of the colored dough and roll it into a ball. Set it in the middle of the white dough.

Then wrap the white dough around the colored ball.

Make the dough look like a round ball.

You can either begin the activity right away with your students, or place them in a bag. I love to tie it with twine and add the printable poem.

Once your students get their play dough, encourage them to squish it and use their fingers and hands to mix it up really good!

At the end, you will have colored play dough!

Surprise Play Dough Printable

If you’d like to use this printable, feel free to download the printable by clicking the button below!

Video

Check out how to make the recipe below!

Frequently Asked Questions

Print Recipe

Surprise Play Dough

How to make surprise play dough.

Servings: 3 play dough sets

Equipment

• 1 pan
• 1 cutting board
• 1 spoon or spatula

Ingredients

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup salt
• 1 tablespoon cream of tartar
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2-3 drops food coloring

Instructions

• Add all the ingredients together in the pan.
• Mix well using a whisk or spoon.
• Set the pan on a stove and cook on medium heat.
• Stir the mixture frequently.
• Once the dough starts to form a ball, remove the pan from the stove.
• Place the dough onto a cutting board, sprinkled with flour.
• Once it has cooled slightly, knead the dough.
• Split the dough in half. Add food coloring to one half and mix.
• Split the white dough into three sections. Flatten the dough like a pancake.
• Roll the colored dough into balls. Place them in the center of the white dough.
• Wrap the white dough around the colored dough and make it look like a ball.
• Lastly, invite your students to play with the surprise play dough!

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