Toddler Art Class: Cloud Dough

Who knew clouds could be so messy?

Art Project: Cloud Dough
Supplies:
flour
oil (cooking oil, baby oil, whatever)
measuring cups and spoons
big bowls, smaller bowls
silicone baking molds
cookie cutters

Book:
  Sora and the cloud = Sora to kumo / Hoshino, Felicia

Music to make art by:  
Catch that train! [sound recording] / Zanes, Dan

What kids do:

measure and mix flour and oil in an 8:1 ratio

 stir it with your hands or squish it in a bag.

 (if you increase the amount of oil in the dough, it will turn into an almost play-doh like consistency.)

 pretend cooking...

eat it in mass quantities

 

 dump flour over their head....

  
Hindsight Tip: 
-- For the third class session today, I gave them pre-mixed leftover dough.  The first two classes benefited from the mathematics practice of measuring ingredients on their own, but the third class seemed to spend more quality time doing pretend play with the dough.  I see value in both methods, but giving them pre-mixed might be marginally less messy.
--This was extremely messy to clean up.  Not difficult to clean, but the flour got everywhere and it took about 20 minutes of vacuuming to get even the loose piles on top of the carpet swept up.  Plus, there were tons of dirty buckets and cookie cutters and silicone molds, etc. to wash.
--I DO think it was worth the mess.  Kids stayed at this class longer than any other art project I've done so far.  I almost had to chase a few families out as the time for the next class loomed closer.  I also had wonderful feedback from at least one parent who said that although she doesn't normally interact with the art materials of the day, she really enjoyed these and was having a blast exploring the texture herself.
--Be sure to have a gluten-free alternative (like commercial play-doh) for families with allergies.

 Variations to try: 

Next time, do this outside!

Adult Challenge:  Ask open-ended questions.