Coconut QuickSand Play Dough

Make up a batch of this super sensory, soft and stretchy play dough; it’s just like quick sand. With a coconut scent and added sand, it’s the perfect addition to some seaside play!

Coconut quicksand dough main

We love play dough and are always looking for new recipes and ways to use it. With a little experimentation this coconut quick sand recipe was born. It makes a wonderful play material especially with it’s sensory properties; the coconutty scent (which is reminiscent of sun lotion) and of course the tactile, grainy sand.

Coconut quicksand play dough 1

You will need:

1½ cup cornflour (cornstarch in the US)

½ cup sand

½ cup coconut hair conditioner (though any conditioner would work well too)

Mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl, hands are best at mixing this type of dough to help to work and knead it into the perfect consistency. Depending on the mixture you can add in more sand if you’d like.

Then it’s time to play!

Coconut quicksand play dough

Coconut quicksand play dough

This is a fantastic play material on its own. It is stretchy and soft and is mesmerising to handle. The scent is wonderful too! Adding that extra sensory element to the dough.

Coconut quicksand play dough

However, today I set it out as an invitation to come and explore. I set out the dough on a wooden board, surrounded by a little extra sand. In some little fishy dip bowls I added some shells
and glass pebbles
for S (2.4yrs) to use in the quick sand dough.

Coconut quicksand play dough 6

S loved handling and prodding the dough as it is quite unlike the play dough we usually play with. The shells and pebbles began to sink into the dough after a minute or two which was fun and great fine motor practise when it came to digging them out again!

Coconut quicksand play dough 7

She enjoyed pressing the shells and pebbles into it and examining the imprint they had made underneath.

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This dough has a calming element to it and is un-put-downable…just play with it and you’ll see what I mean!

The dough should last a week or so if stored in a container in the fridge. It’ll need to be kneaded again to warm it up and make it a stretchy dough again.

EYFS Areas Developed:

  • Physical: fine motor development through poking, pressing and pulling loose parts, handling the stretchy dough.
  • Expressive Arts & Design: using various objects and textures to make imprints, modelling and sculpting the dough, using the dough to represent sand.

Coconut quicksand play dough 4

Did you like this activity? You might like the Under the Sea Pinterest board:

  Follow Beth @ Wings and Roots’s board Under the Sea Theme on Pinterest.

 

Or take a look back through our PLAY DOUGH recipes and activity ideas.

 

 

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2 Comments

  1. katepickle July 8, 2015 Reply
    • Beth July 8, 2015 Reply

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