Chocolate shop play dough activity for Valentines Day!
We are huge fans of homemade play dough activities here. I’ve never met a kid who doesn’t love to play with playdough. It’s so therapeutic and it’s terrific for building fine motor skills and hand, finger and upper-arm muscles. Some say that offering play dough every day, is the best way to help your child strengthen his fine-motor skills
Here’s a question for you: have you ever scented your homemade play dough to make it smell delicious? Oh my goodness. We made this chocolate scented playdough as a Valentine’s activity today, and also a strawberry scented dough, and they smelled divine! As long as your kids are past the age of wanting to taste everything they play with, you should give this dough a try. We played with it for ages as a Valentine’s chocolate shop, but it would be wonderful any day of the year.
For your convenience, this post contains affiliate links.
Of all the things we play with here, homemade playdough is among one of he favourites with the hooligans. I always have a batch on hand, and I enjoy making special coloured and scented playdough for holidays and special days. Today, the hooligans and I set up a play dough chocolate shop in anticipation of Valentine’s Day!
We started by making our strawberry dough. I would normally use red kool-aid for the scent and colour here, but alas, I had no kool-aid so I had to get creative. I used strawberry hair conditioner instead!
Strawberry play dough recipe:
- 1/2 cup strawberry scented hair conditioner
- 1 cup flour
- 2 tsp oil
- pink, red or burgundy food colouring. (I used Wilton’s icing gel in Burgundy)
Simply mix all your ingredients together with a spoon, and then knead by hand until the colour is blended in, and the dough is smooth.
You can see in the following photo that the dough starts out looking very course, but ends up being quite smooth.
I was guessing at amounts when I mixed up this dough, and I actually used more oil than what I’ve suggested above. I found the dough to be too sticky, and simply added a bit of flour to correct it. Start with the 2 tsp that I’ve recommended. You can always add a bit more oil or a bit of flour to get the dough to the consistency you like.
This dough is amazing! It has a soft rubbery quality, and it’s almost stretchy. And the conditioner makes your hands feel great!
Chocolate play dough recipe:
For our the chocolate dough, we paid a visit to Anna at the Imagination tree. Anna is the queen of play dough, and has oodles of great recipes on her site. We used her “Easy Chocolate Play Dough Recipe” today. It’s quick and easy, and it looks and smells just like brownie batter when you’re mixing it up.
Once we’d mixed up our doughs, I set up a little “chocolate shop” for the hooligans to explore with their play dough.
I’d saved all of our plastic Chocolate containers from Christmas, and they were perfect for this activity.
Glass beads were perfect for decorating our chocolates, and spoons, tweezers or tongs help to develop fine motor skills.
Seashells were fun to press into the dough. They were also used as moulds, and to make imprints.
And of course, our meatball scoops! I always set these out with our sensory bins and playdough activities. These are always the most popular tool on the table.
They’re excellent for developing scissor skills, and they really give fine motor and co-ordination skills a work out. They’re also fabulous for scooping and sorting, and because of their design, they were just perfect for forming beautiful chocolates today.
I have two sets of meatball tongs, which I picked up at a thrift shop, but you can order them through amazon.com right here from my site.
The hooligans played with their chocolate shop for about an hour, making bonbons, cupcakes, puddings and treats.
And our house smelled absolutely delicious!
To keep the mess factor under control, I place a vinyl table cloth on the floor. I picked up a couple of inexpensive ones a couple of years ago, and we use them whenever we’re doing any messy craft or activity. When we’re finished, I gather up the cloth and give it a shake outside. Clean up is a snap. 🙂
More homemade play dough ideas:
Get 3-5 Playful Preschool e-Book!
25+preschool activities by 25 bloggers, 10 printables, 50 links to activities not featured in the book all for $8.99!
Follow the Hooligans on Facebook
Jackie is a mom, wife, home daycare provider, and the creative spirit behind Happy Hooligans. She specializes in kids’ crafts and activities, easy recipes, and parenting. She began blogging in 2011, and today, Happy Hooligans inspires more than 2 million parents, caregivers and Early Years Professionals all over the globe.
Anna @ The Imagination Tree
Gorgeous Jackie!! We love making chocolates and sweet treats from play dough. Thanks for the link to my chocolate recipe! Wonderful photos x
happyhooligans
Thanks, Anna! And you’re so welcome! Thank you for being my go-to girl when it comes to playdough recipes. 🙂
angelinesmit
When do you all find time to blog? Bedtime and naptime?
pegges
I love that! I’d just be so tempted to bite in some. lol
Diana
We use cut up shower curtain liners on our art table to keep things clean. When the shower curtain gets too dirty we run it through the washing machine.
happyhooligans
Awesome idea, Diana! I love it!
Amii
I love how you set out your invitations to play. They look beautiful and so captivating! 🙂
happyhooligans
Thank you, Amii! The kid in me has a lot of fun setting them up. 🙂
angelinesmit
I was wondering when you find to do your blog posts? Thank-you for finding the time and sharing btw!
happyhooligans
I do most of my blogging in the evenings and after my boys go to bed. They’re 12 and 15 now so I have considerably more time on my hands than I did when they were younger. I take my photos throughout the day when the daycare hooligans are here, and often I organized them during nap-time, and then I write my posts in the evening. I’m so glad you’re enjoying our ideas, Angeline! Thanks for taking the time to drop me a line!
Tondra Denise
I Love play dough… I LOVE chocolate… so I was just waiting for an excuse to try this recipe! Well that opportunity came just a few weeks ago for my daughter’s 9th birthday and it did not disappoint! Thanks for the “chocolately good” inspiration…
http://tondradenise.blogspot.com/2013/07/nine-candles.html
Anne Worner
The grandkids and I made the chocolate play dough on Valentine’s Day 2013. Their creations were allowed to dry and they have been playing with them ever since. They still have the chocolate fragrance. We also made minature ones (1/2″) for American Girl doll treats. A very fun project!!
happyhooligans
Seriously? That’s great, Anne! I’d have never thought to let them dry for future use. We’ll do that next time!
Meagan
Meagan@letthembelittle
Jackie, I LOVE this invitation to play! Your hooligans are so blessed!
Ashley
This looks too delicious to play with! Thanks for sharing it at Mom’s Library; I featured you this week!
Lorelei
What kind of Shampoo and Oil did you use.?.. lovely recipe ! Just wondering if i did it correctly
happyhooligans
It’s hair conditioner, Lorelei, not shampoo. I think shampoo would yield quite different results. I think I used Suave brand strawberry scented conditioner. And any cooking oil would be fine: vegetable, canola etc.