Make Winter Snow Play Dough for a fun sensory experience on those days when it’s too cold to play outside.

This is a crafty post.

But it’s also a real-life post. Because nothing ever goes quite as smoothly as I’d like to paint it.

The story goes like this.

I’d promised the preschoolers we’d make play dough. And while the potential mess of the dough makes me cringe, it is something that keeps them occupied for a lengthy chunk of time. At least long enough for me to guzzle a protein shake, and switch over the laundry.

And so I gathered the ingredients for the play dough but when I opened the bag of has-been-stored-in-the-basement flour I discovered meal worms.

Not just a few, like: pick them out, make the unedible play dough, and no one will ever know. But enough live, wriggling worms we could have ditched the play dough and held a science experiment.

Told you this was real life.

Taking the five kids to the grocery store wasn’t an alternative I was willing to brave, so we subbed corn starch. And turns out, the corn starch worked even better than flour, making a super soft, bright white play dough–the perfect “snow play dough” for recreating those wintry arctic scenes.

Winter Snow Play Dough

Ingredients:

• 2 cups corn starch (or all-purpose flour)
• 1 cup salt
• 2 Tablespoons cream of tartar
• 2 Tablespoons oil
• 1.5 cups boiling water
• glitter (optional)
• few drops peppermint essential oil (optional)

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, mix well. Add more corn starch/flour if dough is too sticky, or more water if dough is too dry.

(Glitter and peppermint oil are totally optional, but are fun additions to the sensory experience!)

They used the winter snow play dough to make snowmen, and Arctic animal winter scenes.

“What? There’s no penguin?” I observed.

“Moooom.” My nine-year-old sighed.

“The package says Arctic animals. Not Antarctic animals.”

Ooops. Silly me. But at least someone’s been paying attention.