Monday, October 12, 2015

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Soda Dough Ghosts!

If you're looking for the perfect Halloween craft, this is it!  Kids of all ages (toddlers, preschoolers, school-age, and...even adults!) had a blast making these little Soda Dough Ghosts and finding places to display them!



Making the dough for these is SUPER easy and so white and pretty!  It also uses very inexpensive ingredients--you could easily make a batch big enough for a classroom or party!  We used the same soda dough recipe that we used for our butterfly decorations, but I'll repeat it here so you can find it easily.

Simple Supplies:

* baking soda
* cornstarch
* water
* foil-lined cookie sheet and oven

Easy How To:

1- Make the dough:  Mix 2 cups baking soda, 1 cup cornstarch, and 1 1/2 cups water in a sauce pan.  Cook it over medium heat, stirring constantly.  Watch it all dissolve, then start to thicken again.  As soon as it starts to get thick, turn the heat off.  It will keep thickening as you stir it.  When it looks like mashed potatoes, dump it onto the counter top and let it cool for a moment.  As soon as you can touch it, knead it until it is smooth.

2- Divide the dough and let your kiddos get to work!  This recipe makes about four tennis-ball sized piles of dough, but it is easily doubled.  If you want to make more than just doubling it, I'd recommend making it in batches...it starts to get hard to stir constantly and make sure it doesn't over-cook when you make huge batches.

3- When I told the kids we were making ghosts, they each had an idea of how they wanted to make theirs.  It was wonderful watching them create their own little ghosts!

I let my 2-year olds place their ghosts over a little mold: a cut-out egg carton shell!  It was perfect for them to press the pieces into.



The preschoolers and school-age kids wanted to roll theirs out and make their own uniquely-shaped ghosts!




4- When the ghost crafts are done, put the oven on its lowest setting--ours is 170 degrees F--and let them cook until they're hard.  Ours took between an hour and an hour and a half--some were thicker than others!

5- When the ghosts are done cooking, let them cool on the counter.  Then pull out paint or permanent markers and let your children add eyes or faces to their ghosts!


This one's creator told me that just because it was ghost, didn't mean it couldn't be cute with eyelashes!





Ta da!!  Fantastic little ghosts!!  You can hang them up, display them on a counter, or just let your kiddos play with them!




I'm sharing this activity as part of the 12 Months of Sensory Doughs Series!

BEST Sensory Dough Recipes

Be sure to check out these other soda dough recipes and activities:

Rainbow Soda Dough | Lemon Lime Adventures
Soda Dough Ghosts | Preschool Powol Packets




I may share at any of these parties!



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