This coconut cloud dough is another great addition to your list of summer activities for preschoolers and kindergarten kids. Not only does it smell amazing, but it will also have the kids engaged and excited for hours!
You don’t need too many supplies to make the coconut-scented cloud dough. Your students can even help you create this sensory invitation!
And there are a variety of sensory tools, loose parts, and manipulatives you can add to the DIY summer cloud dough. Meaning that you can change things up based on what you have on-hand, as well as your students’ ages and needs.
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Related: Sensory Play for the Whole Year
This cloud dough recipe was inspired by our homemade play sand. We knew we wanted a bit of a coconut twist on that original idea. Which is what led us to today’s sensory idea!
Coconut Cloud Dough
I love this recipe, and every child who’s played with it has also had such fun with it! It smells absolutely divine! Mind you, I love the smell of coconut, and it made me think of the beach the entire time we were using it.
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Related: Messy Play Recipes
If you and the kids don’t like the scent of coconut, or if anyone is allergic to coconut, you definitely do NOT want to make this. But you can use the base of the recipe to make regular cloud dough.
Ingredients for Coconut-Themed Cloud Dough
First, gather all the ingredients you need to make the coconut cloud dough. Here’s what we used (I may get commissions for purchases made through links in this post):
- White flour
- Vegetable oil
- Coconut extract
- Whole coconut (optional)
Once you have those items, locate any additional materials you’d like to incorporate into the coconut dough. Here are some items we’ve used with it:
- Tiny umbrellas
- Sea glass
- Large plastic bins
- Sand toys
- Scoops
Once you have all of the supplies, it’s time to start getting the coconut invitation to play ready! Remember, you can involve the children in many parts of this process, as you see fit.
Coconut Cloud Dough Recipe
Here’s how I made a sensory bin full of the coconutty cloud dough:
- 1 five-pound bag of basic white flour
- 2 cups of vegetable oil
- Coconut extract (I added about half the small bottle)
- Fresh, shredded coconut
Have the kids help put everything into a large bowl and mix! I didn’t measure the coconut extract exactly, but aimed to give the dough a light scent.
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Related: Summer Calendar Numbers
For a smaller batch, the recipe would be 4 cups of flour mixed with 1/2 cup vegetable oil. Baby oil can be used in place of the vegetable oil if you’d like – if it’s scented that might not mix as well with the smell of coconut, though.
Invitation to Play with the Coconut Dough
Now that everything’s prepped, you can invite the children to come and play! You can also take a little coconut side quest like we did.
Before we mixed everything up, the the children and I taste-tested some fresh coconut. Wait, back up . . . me cracking open a whole coconut started everything off! For tips on how to do just that, I’d suggest checking out this helpful video. Unless you’re a coconut opening aficionado, which I am not.
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Once that was taken care of, we all tried some coconut. I already knew I liked it, but the kiddos weren’t too fond of it. Next up, we shredded most of the “meat” and mixed it into the recipe shared above.
Coconut cloud dough is an open-ended sensory experience. This means the kids get to decide how to interact with it, within your expectations of course. You’ll see various ways of playing, like:
- Running their hands through the cloud dough
- Scooping and pouring the dough – this is especially fun if you place coconut shells in the bin
- Building “sand castles” and decorating the castles with tiny umbrellas
- Making a beach out of coconut cloud dough
- Telling stories about the beach they created
- Transferring the dough into other bins
- Pressing items, like shells, into the dough to make imprints
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You’ll like see even more than what’s listed above. I love observing the children during times like this. It’s always fun to see how open-ended activities play out.
I can tell you that the coconut cloud dough play usually lasted about an hour with the preschoolers. Many of the kids were sure to ask if we could play with it again the next day.
What would your students think of this coconut sensory activity? Be sure to save it for future reference. If you have a Play Dough Pinterest Board, that might be a good place to save it.
More Coconut Activities for Kids
If the coconut cloud dough was a hit, here are a few more ideas to try with the children:
Beach Lesson Plans
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Originally published June 2014.
The post Coconut Cloud Dough Recipe to Make This Summer appeared first on Fun-A-Day!.