As part of our home education, we do a ‘make or bake’ activity on most days, meaning we either make something or bake something. With Halloween just around the corner, our ‘make or bake’ activities are themed with that in mind, and yesterday we made a pumpkin pie scented playdough. It was fun to make and turned out really well, so I’d like to share the recipe here with you.
We also used our playdough to make little Halloween lanterns, so this post will include that activity too. It could be a fun thing to do for table decorations, perhaps for a kids Halloween party. All the guests can join in and make their own party lantern!
So, here’s what you need to make our Pumpkin Pie Playdough:
- 90 g (150 ml) Plain Flour
- 1 tsp (5 g, or one sachet) Cream of Tartar
- 50 g (75 ml) Salt
- 3-4 tsp Cinnamon
- 2 tsp Ginger
- 1 tsp Cloves
- 100 ml Warm Water
- 1 tablespoon Oil (olive oil, sunflower or other vegetable oil)
- Red & Yellow Food Colouring
I’m aware that ‘Pumpkin Spice’ usually includes a little bit of nutmeg in addition to the spices we’ve used here, so if you like, you could add about 0,5 tsp of that as well.
You might also like to dress up as witches, before stirring this playdough potion together…
Grab a smallish saucepan (or perhaps a witches cauldron) and start by putting all the dry ingredients in there, mixing them all together.
Then add the warm water, followed by the oil, and finally add a bit of food colouring. Put in a little bit at the time, give it a good stir, then see if you wish to add a bit more, until you’re conteded with the colour.
Now turn your cooker on and keep stirring your playdough concoction over a low heat, until it clumps together into a lump of dough (see picture in bottom right corner, below).
If it’s too dry or too sticky, you can adjust by adding a little bit extra water or flour.
And that’s your Pumpkin Pie Playdough, done! Let it cool down slightly and kneed it for a minute or so before letting little hands loose on it.
For our lantern activity, we used two empty glass pots (which originally had yoghurts in them). You could use any small glass jars really, as long as they’re a good size for a tea light. If you’re doing this for a party, you might prefer to use LED lights to minimise the fire hazard.
We simply rolled out some playdough, wrapped it around the glass and gave it a bit of a squeeze to keep it firmly in place. We then used a little playdough tool to ‘carve’ out a face. Just like when carving a pumpkin (or turnip), you can of course let your imagination run free, and maybe decorate it all the way around. We simply went for a classic Jack-O-Lantern kind of face this time. That’s it, just light a candle and pop it in (top tip: put a small blob of playdough underneath the tea light to stop it from sliding around inside the glass). Then sit back and enjoy the warm glow and the wafts of spicy pumpkin pie!
This looks amazing! I absolutely love pumpkin and all things pumpkin!! I bet it smells heavenly. My boys and I might have to try this out! Thanks for sharing! #KCACOLS
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Thank you Lana! I love the smell of it, hope you and your boys love it too! xx
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Such a brilliant idea and great sensory X #mmbc
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Thank you lovely! It’s hard to beat as a sensory treat 🙂 xx
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I love this! What a great way to use pumpkin! #mixitup
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Thank you, although there’s no actual pumpkin in this recipe, just the spices to make it smell like pumpkin pie 😉
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Yes and that is my favorite smell!
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Brilliant! xx
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I love the look and sound of this. I bet it smells amazing. #MMBC
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Thank you! We do love the smell of it! X
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I love pumpkin pie. The idea of the candle softly warming the playdough, really appeals. What a great idea and activity. The faces are just enough spooky. I bet Penguin loved making it. Oh and good tip about anchoring the candle down.#MMBC
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Thank you so much Cheryl! Yes, we really enjoyed it, and are still enjoying the playdough. It smells so good xx
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i will be saving this recipe to make with my boys. I do love a bit of sensory play
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Thank you! I hope you enjoy it as much as we do! X
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What a marvelous idea! I love all things pumpkin!!
#kcacols
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Thank you! It smells pretty fantastic if I may say so myself 🙂 x
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Really love the lantern idea! And hats off to you for making the pumpkin playdough. I love that you generally do a ‘make or bake’ activity – that is so valuable for learning XX so pleased to have you back with us on #thesatsesh too xx
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Thank you so much lovely! It’s nice to be back with you, too xx
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I remember making pumpkin play dough with Adam at kindergarten, it was such fun. #GlobalBlogging
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Cool! Thank you for reading x
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You’re creative ideas for homeschooling are just amazing – they always make me feel inspired to do the same! Thank you for sharing this for everyone to use x
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Aaw, thank you! That’s so sweet of you, I’m really glad to hear you find some inspiration in what we get up to! xx
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Great sensory activity. I bet it smelt fabulous too. #thesatsesh
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Thank you, it did, and still does! 🙂 x
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Looks like great fun and perfect for this time of year. Thanks so much for linking up at #KCACOLS. Hope you come back again next time.
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Thank you! X
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These look lots of fun to create. I’m assuming play dough doesn’t catch light right?! #MMBC
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We’ve not manage to set it alight, so no, I don’t think it does. Also, the glass which the playdough is molded around is taking the blunt of the heat xx
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I have never made my own playdough but this is a great tie in with Halloween. Thanks for linking up with #globalblogging
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Ooh you should try making playdough, it’s really easy and so satisfying, I think! X
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Aw it looks ace! I bet it smells good too! Im all about play dough smells less…play doughy! #KCACOLS
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Haha, too true Becky! I’m not a fan of the smell of the shop bought stuff (although some makes are less pungent than other) either x
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Great idea. I reckon I can almost smell it from here! #kcacols
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Haha, yes, it’s got a real spicy kick to it! 🙂 xx
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This is really cool! What a great way to spend some time together with the kids and make your house smell amazing at the same time!
Pinning for future reference! #KCACOLS
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Thank you lovely! Yes, it’s really enjoyable, and the playdough lasts well too, the batch we made for this post is still going strong 🙂 x
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I love this, what a brilliant idea. We’ve never tried making our own playdough before but I love the idea of pumpkin-pie playdough and those mini jack-o-lanterns look amazing. #KidsandKreativity
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Thank you Louise! You should give making your own playdough a go, it’s really quick and simple! And you can make it smell nice by adding whatever spices, herbs or essences that you have available in your cupboards x
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This looks great. We still haven’t made our own playdough yet, something I keep meaning to try! Thanks so much for sharing at #KidsandKreativity, hope to see you back next time x
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Oh you need to give homemade playdough a go, it’s so easy and you can add whatever scent and colours you like 🙂 x
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