How To: Make Baking Soda Dough
Baking Soda Dough is very simple to make and only requires two ingredients, three if you want to get really exciting (and messy)! It's a great medium for encouraging collaborative play and, like kinetic sand, for simulating cooking.
Baking Soda Dough is made using only baking soda and a little water. The texture is slightly crumbly but it holds together when squeezed or patted. You can also make it in a range of different colours by providing a little food colouring for the children to mix it in.
As an added benefit, once the children finish playing with the dough, a new element of excitement can be introduced to the activity by providing some droppers and vinegar to make bubbles in the dough, to create mini volcanoes! Once the bubbles are gone, the baking soda and vinegar mixture will become a very interesting paste!
Baking Soda Dough
3 cups baking soda*
1-2 cups water
Food colouring (optional)
vinegar (optional)
Method:
Pour the baking soda into a large mixing bowl.
Slowly add the water - add food colouring to the water if you want to colour your dough - and mix as you go. Add enough water to create a crumbly dough that sticks together when pressed, patted or squeezed, but isn't too wet.
After playing and molding the dough for a while, give children small amounts of vinegar to mix and create fizzing dough!
* To get large amounts of baking soda ask your kitchen if they can order through their regular supplier. Otherwise try a bulk bin shop, or make in smaller quantities*
As mentioned above, this is a messier activity than the previous instalments in our messy play series. However, we did this inside on a rainy day and contained the mess around one table. With a little water and a large cloth or towel the mess was easy enough to clean up. If done outside over a grassy or barked area the mess could be easily hosed away with little effort.
The children really enjoyed this activity and, because it can be used in a variety of ways, it kept them engaged for quite some time. We highly recommend giving it a try!