Time for a little themed sensory play!  My sweet little Rooster is turning 3 this week and requested an ice cream party for her birthday.  Since I love a good theme, I am making this whole week about ICE CREAM! In preparation for a week of activities, I decided to whip up a batch of ice cream play dough.

 It is SUPER easy!  The only two ingredients are frosting and powdered sugar.  That’s it! I decided to make a triple batch with pink, purple, and yellow.  I like using the Funfetti kind because it is already colored and comes with sprinkles.  For making all three colors, I will use 3 tubs of frosting and 2 bags of powdered sugar.  All of this cost me around $7.00 total for a week of sensory fun.

Making the Dough

This too is easy and something your child would probably enjoy helping with.  In our KitchenAid mixing bowl we combined one whole tub of frosting, the included sprinkles, and 3 cups of powdered sugar.  Mix on low until the powdered sugar gets mixed in with the frosting to prevent a sugar storm. Once it is pretty well blended, you can turn the speed up to medium.

Now take it out of the mixer and knead it together to form a nice ball.  You are done! I repeated the entire process 2 more times, thus resulting in 3 balls of “ice cream” play dough.  It has a fun texture, smells like ice cream, and is edible. I would not recommend eating it, but if your little one sneaks a little in their mouth, a sugar high is your only concern.

 

 

Using the Dough

After making the ice cream dough, I placed all three colors in a small tub from the Dollar Tree.  I left them separated, but know it will not be long before they get all mixed. You can use this dough just like normal play dough, but I am keeping the ice cream theme going.  For this first day of use, I just let my daughter explore with scooping the dough into her ice cream cups. She played with it for about 30 and would have played longer if I didn’t have to tell her to clean up.  So for today, this provided us with an hour of fun, minimally messy, and educational fun (30 minutes making & 30 minutes playtime).

Preserving the Dough

I plan on using this dough with my daughter throughout the week.  I covered my tub with some plastic wrap and placed it in the refrigerator.  It will dry out some with use, but drizzle a little olive oil on it and knead to bring back to its original texture.

Please check back later in the week to see what other ice cream activities and book recommendations!