Edible Snow Dough

Children love to have opportunities to use their hands and explore various textures and tactile experiences! This edible snow dough is safe for little hands — it is perfect for toddlers, preschoolers, and kindergarteners alike because if they sneak a taste, you don’t have to worry! We created a little small literary world with various small parts in our snow dough.

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Today I bring you the start of our new year of 12 Months of Sensory Dough! Our sensory recipe for this month is Snow Dough! Make sure to check out all of the amazing snow dough recipes and play ideas at the end of this post!! We always make a completely taste safe and edible option because I always catch my children putting a little taste in their mouths! So while I have seen some really beautiful snow doughs, with white or silvery glitter, for example, my children still aren’t quite ready. When I make edible play dough. I don’t make it and give to my children and yell, “Eat this!!” I just want it to be safe.

Invitation to Play

I set up our edible snow dough {our recipe is below} in a little small world with our Arctic animals. I also included several small parts, to include some small gems, sticks, and letters. I also included various ice cube trays, the cute fish and star ones are both from Ikea, but here are similar. This is so they could make various snow blocks!

What is snow dough?

Snow dough can be many different textures. I like to think of it as a non-cold substance that looks and acts {kind of} like snow. Snow is fluff. Snow dough can stay together when you squeeze it into a ball or it can be molded. I kept our invitation to play simple, without tools or spoons so the kids would really feel it in their hands instead of simply transferring it, which is what my son tends to do.

I set out the snow dough on top of a big tub top — you know, the huge rubbermaid bins that hold all the boy/girl baby/toddler/etc clothes. It was perfect for a base. And then I included two smaller trays to set up the edible snow dough small world. Our little blue tray held the Arctic sea animals — including my son’s current interest, the Orca whale!!

The children both had a chance to discover and played for longer than I expected. Four year old John made balls and played around in the water. And two year old May had a smile the whole time. They both played for over an hour — which surprised me! And May wanted to get it out later — after I cleaned up! But it was fairly simple to clean since everything was contained on a simple king sized sheet that we use for messy sensory play!Here is May using her fine motor skills to squish the snow dough into ice cube trays! I tried to show her that these could make bricks, but her little hands crushed the bricks too quickly to capture those moments.

Here is John teaching May how to roll her snow dough into a ball!

I also brought some little plastic letters out and spelled some of the important words for John. He recognizes the beginning letters in words, so this was fun to play with his letter recognition.

May continued to play with the little rocks and eskimos and letters.

Best Edible Snow Dough Recipe

Ingredients:

3 cups corn starch
3 cups flour
1/2 cup vegetable oil

Directions:

Mix the dry ingredients and then add 1/4 cup of vegetable oil at a time. Mix together with your fingertips until you have a fluffy consistency that you’re happy with. It will take a couple minutes of kneading to get it fluffy!

We added a couple drops of orange and cinnamon essential oils to make it smell pleasant — make to add it to the oil before adding to the dry ingredients!

A wonderful time of play for little ones.

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This post is part of the Sensory Dough series from Lemon Lime Adventures. You can find some other wonderful snow dough recipes and play ideas at these posts:

Experimenting with Snow Dough | Lemon Lime Adventures

How to Make Snow Dough (Taste Safe) | Powerful Mothering

Book-Inspired Snow Dough Sensory Play | Stir the Wonder

Snow Fairy Small World with Snow Sensory Dough | Still Playing School

Snow Dough Science | Raising Lifelong Learners

A Snowy Day Snow Dough Play | Natural Beach Living

Frozen Snow Dough | Sugar Aunts

Vitamin E Snow Dough Recipe | FSPDT

Rubbery Marshmallow Play Dough | Therapy Fun Zone

Snow Dough & Outdoor Play | Peakle Pie

Music Inspired Snow Dough | Witty Hoots

Glittery Snow Dough | In The Playroom