How to make Cloud Dough

Cloud dough is a fantastic sensory play material that’s soft, moldable, and easy to make with just a few ingredients! This no-cook recipe is perfect for preschoolers and young children, providing a fun, hands-on activity that supports fine motor skills and creativity. The original recipe would call for baby oil but we have changed it up a little to make it taste safe.

 

How to make cloud dough:

We made our cloud dough with vegetable oil to make it edible and ultimately taste safe. Edible does not mean eat it by the spoonful! It means that if your toddler were to take a taste, said toddler would be perfectly fine.

You will need:

• All purpose flour
• Vegetable oil
• Oil based food coloring or powder food coloring
• a bowl for mixing
• a sensory tub for playing in

For our little play adventure, I wanted to make a variety of colors so I used 2 cups of flour per color with 1/4 cup of vegetable oil. Please use your kitchen measuring cups and don’t guesstimate, else your cloud dough recipe will be too wet. Making the cloud dough is also very easy and does not take much time. A great plus!

Cloud Dough Recipe:

 

How to color cloud dough?

For the coloring, you have two options. You can use powdered coloring and mix it in the flour before adding the oil or you can use oil based food coloring and premix it in the oil before adding it to the flour.

I had oil-based food coloring on hand so I premixed it into the vegetable oil. I used the tip of a teaspoon’s worth; the more you add, the deeper and darker the color.

Now, mix your ingredients in a bowl. You will have to get your hands into the mix to pinch the flour to distribute the oils and coloring.

Once mixed, line the colors up in your sensory bin and provide various items to play with. I let the kids use my kitchen measuring set.

Then the tea set got added by my preschooler when he joined in. (Using cloud dough for preschool is also a great idea.)

 

And my 3-year-old also came along to inspect. He loves sensory things and, um, things that he could potentially use to cause a lovely mess! If you do this activity indoors, a large bedsheet is recommended for under the sensory tub to catch those little messes.

Oh, how he loved the feel of this cloud dough stuff! I love how the colors turned out too, although in hindsight I might have not made the green, as it turned the entire bin grey washed out purple when everything was mixed together.

I also think I need a bigger sensory tub! When all 3 kids come to play, which they very often do, it gets a bit crowded. Or perhaps I need a second tub and I can stick my 3-year-old in it. haha. 😉

As usual, the younger two did try to eat the cloud dough. Which is no surprise.

Other items brought to the cloud dough sensory bin included a wooden train set, various cars, some animals, and the teaspoons from the tea set, which resulted in my toddler offering me a bite of the cloud dough.

I hope you enjoyed this little how-to-make-cloud-dough post and that your cloud dough adventure is as much fun as ours was!

Looking for more hands-on activities to spark creativity and learning? Explore our collection of easy, low-prep ideas for sensory play, arts & crafts, and more!

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