Hellobee

I had a random day off this past week and was looking for a fun fall project to do with Mini Pbj, when I came across a picture of a project using salt dough. Typically when I think about doing a project with salt dough, my mind immediately heads to Christmas and making homemade ornaments or little trinkets. However, I figured what the heck, I’ll go outside my box and do a project that is geared towards fall! This is a wonderful sensory activity for kids of all ages!

Here’s the recipe for salt dough that I used:

Salt Dough

• 1/2 cup salt
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup water
• Mix ingredients together until dough forms. Knead dough together. Roll out to 1/4 inch thickness and then cut out desired shapes. Bake at 250 degrees F. for 2-3 hours.

Don’t worry, this container was almost empty…..I did not end up with salt all over my floor!

With all of the dumping, pouring, mixing, and stirring, this activity is great for working on fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. Plus, she just had a blast feeling like a “big girl” and doing it all by herself!

I’ve made things with salt dough before, but for some reason I don’t remember them being as easy and no-mess as this recipe. This dough came together quickly and so nicely! Literally like 5 minutes!

Had I thought about it at the time, I probably should have let her use one of her rolling pins in her play dough toy bucket, but she actually did really well with this big one! She kept telling me she was “using her muscles”. I also wanted to mention that I was super surprised that we had no trouble with this sticking to the counter! I was prepared for a sticky disaster, but there were no issues!

We cut out some pumpkins and leaves…well actually Mini Pbj did, because apparently she is a big girl now and doesn’t need my help with this! I was getting ready to assist her, and I turned around to grab a spatula from behind me; when I turned back I saw this….

I was like “Oookkay, maybe I should just go ahead a give you this spatula”! On the bright side though, this does make me excited for the holidays and making some cut-out sugar cookies with her!

Depending on the size of your cookie cutters I would say that you could get about 9-12 shapes from this recipe. I thought it would be fun to try to make one with her handprint in it, so I just used a circle cutter that I had and let her press her hand into it.

I baked ours for 3 hours and then let them completely cool.

For the decorating, I have a large stash of non-toxic acrylic paint and I just chose some fall colors for Mini Pbj to choose from.

Painting these little shapes kept her busy for such a long time! I thought she would be bored after one or two, but she kept asking for me to give her another one and give her more paint until she had painted them all!

As you can see, Mommy might have helped paint a couple too! I have always loved painting and craft projects so I couldn’t resist!We had so much fun making these together and I think they look super cute!

I think I’m just going to keep ours displayed on our kitchen table on a fall platter, but you could totally put some holes in them before baking and then hang them up! Do a fun garland or just individually for some cute decor around the house!

Happy Fall Ya’ll!