Moon Dough/Cloud Sand

After posting my last recipe for play dough, I had several people asking me about Moon Dough (also sometimes called Cloud Sand) so I figured I'd try that out with the boy-o today. You can buy Moon Dough from most toy stores, but really for what you're getting it costs a fortune! Moon Dough is spectacularly easy to make at home, and when stored in an air tight container it lasts for many re-plays.

Not only is Moon Dough super easy to make, it only requires two ingredients (three if you want to get fancy), but it's a wonderful in-expensive sensory activity to do with your little. Moon Dough acts very similar to wet sand, but has a much softer and velvety feel to it. We added a tiny bit of food colouring to the oil when we made ours, and since oil and food colouring don't mix well we ended up with flecks of blue colouring in the sand rather than all blue sand which made a really neat effect.

 

Moon Dough (like sand) can be quite messy, so we played with it in one of our trays and we put a smock on the boy-o. We had him strapped into the highchair and put the metal tray on top of his highchair tray. It worked out really well and sweeping the spills off the tile floor was quick and easy. 

We added a few Tablespoons and some dishes from his kitchen to enhance our play with the Moon Dough. The boy-o loved scooping it up and dumping it into another container and then dumping it out and starting all over again. He played well by himself for a bit while I finished up making supper, and then I joined in for a bit too. He loved watching it "snow" when I dropped it between my fingers making little flakes of it fall.

Moon Dough Recipe:

Ingredients:

- 2 cups all purpose flour

- 1/2 cup oil

- Food colouring (optional)

Directions:

1. Add a few drops of food colouring to oil if desired and mix.

2. Add oil mixture to flour and using your hands work the Moon Dough until the oil has touched all the flour and made a crumbly mixture that sticks together when pressed firmly together. 

3. Play!

4. When finished store Moon Dough in an air tight container for another day of fun.

Another great rainy day activity or boredom buster!