How to Make No Cook Playdough

DIY No Cook playdough

This post is part of my involvement as a Netflix #StreamTeam Member. All opinions are my own. 

Science was always a dreaded word when I was a kid. Everything about the subject was boring.  When I had kids I decided to change all that by taking advantage of all the great science shows available. These shows were a springboard for other activities. We found books on subjects that interested them and did simple science experiments. The more we did together, the more topics they found that interested them.  One of our favorite creative activities was making different objects from play dough.  We  even made an entire structure of an atom and a DNA sequence.   The only problem I had with play dough was how quickly it dried out.  The kids would forget to put it back into the containers and seal the lids.  We had little pieces of dried play dough everywhere.  Our world changed when I found a recipe for no cook play dough. It called for only a few ingredients,  took around ten minutes to make and could be stored in a plastic container when not in use.  After I learned how to make no cook play dough, we had an endless supply!

How to Make No Cook Play Dough #netflixkids
Prep time:
Total time:
Easy, no cook recipe for home made play dough
Ingredients
  • 1 cup (8 ounces) all purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon EACH cream of tartar and vegetable oil
  • 1/4 cup (2 ounces) salt
  • 3/4 cup boiling water
  • 4 colors of food coloring, optional
Instructions
  1. Mix the flour, cream of tartar, salt and vegetable oil together in a large bowl. Add boiling water and stir until mixture is well mixed. Note: It will be sticky like bread dough. If you want to have colored play dough, divide the dough into four equal parts. Add two to three drops food coloring to each part.
  2. Place each piece of dough, one at a time, on a sheet of waxed paper. Knead the dough until it is no longer sticky and feels like play dough. This usually takes 1 to 2 minutes per batch. Store in a sealed plastic bag or bowl. Can be stored in the fridge.

no cook playdough

how to make no cook playdough
What is your favorite science activity to do with the kids?

83 Comments

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  6. This is truly a great share for my niece – thank you!

  7. I used to love making play dough with my kiddos! None of them are into it anymore.

  8. One of these days, I would love to make homemade play doughs too. It’s a fun medium to play with art with the kids.

  9. I’ll have to keep this in mind for my hand therapy patients. Great way to get function back with playdoh 🙂

  10. How fun and easy!! I love the colors too! Can’t wait to make some with my niece!

  11. My little love play dough. She wanted me to make her homemade play dough. I am glad you posted this recipe. I have saved it.

  12. My 6 year old loves anything to do with nature, finding tracks of animals or birds and guess who made the tracks, she loves planting flowers and digging in the dirt all in a dress and looking cute. You listed all of her favorite shows she watches on Netflix.

  13. Thank you for this! I am bookmarking it for a rainy day project 🙂

  14. I am so going to try your recipe. My toddler loves play-doh but she also loves trying to eat it so having one she can actually eat will be great.

  15. I have not played wth play dough in years .This looks like so much fun to make

  16. We love homemade play dough! Great recipe

  17. That is a great recipe for play dough! My daughter loves playing with hers, but it always seems to dry out. I love the idea of making our own!

  18. My oldest child was given over 200 things of play doh last year. If we ever run out, I’ll have to look into making it! Way cheaper I’m sure!

  19. My husband and I bought my niece a neat chemistry “set” for Christmas last year. It has these test tubes with little experiments. She loved it, and thought it was so cool that she was doing experiments. I think that encouraging math and science is really important for girls & boys!

  20. I love this! I am pinning it to use in my Thirty Days of Kids Unplugged! –and in our dramatically reduced screen time (we aren’t cutting it completely out–all good things in moderation), The Magic School Bus is often the show my little ones get for the day!

  21. I used to do this when my kids were little. Now they babysit so I’m going to suggest they make this for the kids they watch. 🙂

  22. My older kids loved the Magic School bus. A family fave is Wild Kratt’s. We have watched the Kratts for years. Their animal adventures are so much fun. Plus they are Canadian like me (kim)

  23. I love the spring colors. This will be something I wiill have to see if we have the ingredients for!

  24. Love this! My son is a huge wild kratts fan.

  25. My son loves play dough and I”m going to try this soon!

  26. I am surprised,how everyday things are needed to make play dough will give it a try for.

  27. I saw these on pinterest, and it looks great! I’ve made our own playdough before, its so simple

  28. How fun! I’m looking for some fun party ideas and this no cook play dough looks simple enough to make!! Thanks for sharing this recipe for this fun diy play-dough!

  29. I didn’t even think to make play dough for my kids when they were little. What a smart idea! Love it!

  30. This looks like so much fun. I need to make some for my girls!

  31. Will Be Making Thank You!

  32. We make our own Play Doh all the time, funny how many different recipes there are out there for it. I do not use vegetable oil in mine. I will give yours a try and see if it lasts longer before drying out.

  33. I pinned this because my son loves playdough at other peoples house and it will be more fun to make it than to buy it!

  34. I made something similar when my kids were little. They always loved playing with play dough

  35. Playdough is so much fun and even more fun if your little one can help or watch you make it at home. I will have to try this sometime when I have my nephews over.

  36. We love making play dough but, sometimes it doesn’t turn out. I’m going to try this one!

  37. I have everything on hand… I should make a batch.

  38. That is a cool idea. Our kids end up mixing up the dough anyways and it dries out so fast. It almost seems more economical to make your own.

  39. Love this recipe! My boys play with play-doh weekly and I love making my own as it’s so much cheaper!

  40. We go through a lot of Play-doh. I’d love to be able to make a homemade version!

  41. This looks like a very easy way to make play dough! My kids are a bit too old for it, but I do have nieces and nephews who would enjoy it if their moms made them some. I will be sure to share the recipe!

  42. I need to make a batch of this as my son has the annoying habit of leaving the containers open. Dried out play dough is NOT fun.

  43. I love how easy this is to make and I’m sure it would keep my boys entertained for hours. Great craft for keeping the kids busy when the weather is bad outdoors.

  44. My kids love making Play Dough and this is a new rcipe. I will have to try it and see how it compares to what we made before

  45. That is so interesting. I would have never even guessed at how to make it!! How fun and good to know!!

  46. Very nice dough. I like that I can make it at home. I find I am always needed to replace the store bought stuff no mater how careful I am.

  47. How fun.. we always make teh same recipe and the kids LOVE it!!!! Sooo simple and all the ingredients are always on hand… Great movie selections for the month, love it, my kids are big into Science. Thanks for sharing and can;t wait to see what you have planed for next month

  48. Usually when it comes to science experiments, I leave it to hubby. We’ve purchased a few kits for the girls and have enjoyed adding different chemicals to see the reactions. I think my favorite has been non-Newtonian fluid. The girls loved that one.

  49. How fun! My daughter would love this and we could make it together. My daughter is also a huge fan of the Wild Krats. Thanks for sharing the selection!

  50. I really like this idea, especially since you can customize the colors. This will be fun for a play date for my son and his friends.

  51. This is such a fun idea. My little boy would have fun with this playdough!

  52. Thank you for the great recipe! Always love trying new play dough recipes.

  53. I have been looking for a recipe for this. Thanks-going to put it on our list!

  54. It’s fun to make play dough. I add essential oil like peppermint so ours smells good.

  55. My kids keep asking me to make play dough for them, but life seems to always have us busy. I really need to give this a try and let them have a fun play day.

  56. Playdough rocks and making it homemade is so fun.

  57. We go through a lot of play dough at our house! Thanks for the tips!

  58. I’ve never made our own play dough and can’t believe we haven’t done this yet. ill have to do it soon though as all our play dough is running out

  59. We are making Play-Doh this week too! Love the colors you made!

  60. Those colors are great, and I love that it’s so easy to make!

  61. I have always wanted to make my own play dough, but never have. I am just loving how easy this sounds.. and the colors are perfect for spring! I know just the kiddos who will enjoy this!

  62. Thanks for this recipe! We go through a lot of Play-Dough around here so I’ll be giving this a try!

  63. Thanks for the recipe, it is a keeper!! Making this week.

  64. My twins go through a lot of dough, so I really should try and make my own from now on. Thanks for the recipe!!

  65. Homemade is always best. I love when learning is fun.

  66. We love Play Dough! We love Netflix too. Win win!!

  67. This playdough recipe is my favorite. It’s been much too long since we’ve made any.

  68. I have a recipe that is almost identical for homemade playdough. I made it for my son once, but it left a weird film on our hands and was kind of annoying and I couldn’t figure out how to make the homemade playdough without it doing that. so we just buy playdough and save on the mess.

  69. I need to make this with my kids. They would love the fact that they can actually make their own.

  70. Fantastic idea. Love your colors!

  71. I used to make this with my Daughter almost 40 years ago. I don’t remember if the recipe was the same or not, but It sure is a lot cheaper to make it than buy it.

  72. i love the colors. and no bake= my kind of recipe.

  73. Oh how fun! My sister in law did this with her kids last week and they loved it! So fun to see stuff like this for kids to try out!

  74. Oh I remember when we used to do this. It is so much cheaper to make your own. Oh and Magic School Bus stories are so great and educational!

  75. My son loves play doh. This will be fun to do with him.

  76. My kids would enjoy making this. Adding to my craft list.

  77. I want to try and make this! My kids would be in heaven with it.

  78. This is a great play-doh recipe that I’ve used before! Thanks for sharing it here. My son likes the Magic School Bus shows as well – so glad to have Netflix!

  79. Oh my goodness…this looks so easy! I’m going to try this out with my son today. I bet he’ll love it!

  80. i love making playdoh!! your colors are so much prettier than when i do it tho.

    my kids adore neck flicks as they call it 🙂

  81. I use to hate it when Play-Doh would dry up and also create little pieces everywhere! Thank you for this recipe, I’m going to have to try this.

  82. We have a similar recipe that we make. I love the smell of the store bought Play-Doh, but I tend to prefer that the boys play with the homemade stuff!