Salt Dough Recipe No Bake {For Toddlers & Kids}

A salt dough recipe no bake is another super simple activity you can do with your toddlers and kids with plenty of options how to use it!

If you prefer to keep the salt dough as a raw activity then you will be able to set it up in a matter of a few minutes. The set up can be done alone before our kiddies start the ‘play dough’ activity or with them being our very good little helpers.

Salt dough is a fantastic craft and activity to do with our little ones and has many benefits other than the obvious pure joy/fun factor.

Very often we worry and think that our children have to sit down for a long period of time to play with the same toy/ activity. This isn’t always the case and as we say for many things its “quality not quantity” of the play.

The important thing is that they are enjoying themselves and there are always some hidden benefits for most crafts/ games/ activities.

Benefits & Objectives of Salt Dough Play

• Manipulation
• Hand exercise
• Stimulating the sense of touch
• Creativity
• Imagination

Ingredients: Salt Dough Recipe No Bake

• 1 Cup of salt
• 2 Cups of flour
• 1 Cup of warm water
• 1/2 Tea spoon of gel food colouring or 3 large spoons of liquid food colouring (if desired)
• Peppermint

NOTE:

• Liquid food colouring can also be used however I found a little amount of gel colouring went a lot further than a large amount of liquid.
• The liquid food colouring also remained more of a ‘wet’ sensation when playing with the salt dough and was stickier & more difficult to work with between our fingers
• I split the above quantity of ingredients into three different uses;

1. Salt dough with gel food colouring (green: see images)
2. Salt dough with liquid food colouring & peppermint (red/pink: see images)
3. Salt dough shapes to be baked for hanging decorations.

The recipe goes a long way and gives plenty of opportunity to create various activities from just one single batch which in my eyes is a straight out winner!

Tools

• Mixing bowl
• Cup
• Spoon
• Rolling pin
• Ribbon/string
• Pencil
• Shape Cutters

Instructions For Salt Dough No Bake

1. Add all three ingredients into a large mixing bowl.

2. Use hands and fingers to mix well together.

3. Add food colouring.

Additional Instructions For Hanging Decorations

4. Use a rolling pin to roll our the salt dough into an even layer (roughly around 1cm depth).

5. Using biscuit or shape cutters, cut out your shapes in the salt dough.

6. Make a hole using a pencil in the top of the decoration so that you can put ribbon/string through the decoration after it has been baked.

7. Paint or get creative adding glitter to your hanging decorations and add your desired ribbon read to hang.

8. Leave decorations to air dry on a flat surface.

These are perfect as a Christmas activity and craft with toddlers and older kids too ready for your Christmas tree.

Family members will love having these as keepsakes or adding them on to their Christmas tree each year and think back to the wonderful memories.

Salt Dough/ Play Dough Fun

Making the salt dough can be a big part of the excitement for our little ones as well as the finished result.

The sensation of the salt dough between their fingers is irresistible and you will see your sons and daughters squishing, kneading, pushing, stretching and discovering many different ways they can play with this.

You could offer the rolling pin and biscuit/shape cutters to your creative kids and allow the to make different shapes out of the dough.

In fact many kitchen utensils could be used during this activity. My little girl loves to use her toy knife to cut and make the dough into smaller pieces.

The beauty of using this salt dough is that it can be rolled back together numerous times and there doesn’t need to be a limit to their creative ideas.

Check our our Playdough Play For 1 Year Olds article for more fun ideas.

Hand/ Footprint Decorations

Imprinting our children’s handprints and footprints in the salt dough before baking it for the above recommenced time allows memories to be kept for years to come and see how our teeny tiny babies become our ever growing older kids.

We also recommend making our little ones hand and footprints as cards over on our Painting Activities For Toddlers using toddler-friendly paint article.

I Heart Arts N Crafts have some amazing decoration ideas to make with our kiddies.

Adding Scents Into The Salt Dough

In the red/pink salt dough I added some peppermint scent to add another dimension to the activity.

My 20 month old is currently loving using her nose to smell everything (whether that be something nice or not).

The scent used could vary depending on the season and time of the year. For example peppermint is perfect for us now in the lead up to Christmas.

Our Pumpkin Playdough Recipe & Play Ideas article is a wonderful autumn themed activity too.

-IF you would like to bake the salt dough place in a preheated ventilated fan oven for 1 1/2 hours at 220 degrees. (Keep checking regularly as the timing may vary slightly depending on your oven). –