DIY: Play Dough

My play dough making days have taught me three things:
-I don’t like the cooked kind. I always burn it or it burns me.
-No recipe calls for enough flour. Why is that?
-Things that are going to be ruined by children should not call for weird/expensive ingredients

Couldn’t find a recipe that fit my requirements, so I invented my own. Makes great mold-able play dough (apparently also fun to eat-why child, why???) that lasts for quite a long time, especially when kept primarily in the fridge. And the best part is that it is made up completely of items already found in your kitchen (alum? really?!? who has that just lying around?).

The BEST Play Dough

Ingredients:
1/4 cup salt
1 1/4 cup flour (amount of flour may vary slightly depending on altitude)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 T vegetable oil
1/2 cup water
food coloring

Combine the flour and salt in a mixing bowl. Set aside

Boil water in microwave. Remove from microwave once it has started to boil (I realize you guys aren’t idiots, I just wanted to be clear). Add baking soda, vegetable oil and food coloring to water. I am generous with the food coloring. I like the colors to be dark. Let the water cool down enough that you can touch it. If you don’t let it cool, your play dough will end up grainy-believe me.

Add the water mixture to the flour and salt combination. Stir/knead adding more flour as needed until it isn’t sticking to your hands anymore. Let the dough cool completely. Play time!

Store in Tupperware or be eco friendly and store in old cottage cheese/sour cream containers. Lasts longer in refrigerator.

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Teach the Teacher Printable Worksheets: A Fun…

Human brains are pretty amazing, allowing us to think, feel, create, communicate, move and more. But humans aren’t the only animals with cool brains, as Crab Museum explains in the book The No-Brainer Brain Explainer (illustrated by Bruno Valasse).

This book, aimed at kids in grades 1-4, is colorful and silly but also educational about how brains actually work, with billions of neurons sending electrical and chemical signals around the body.

“Everything we think, feel and experience comes from an electrical relay race, with neurons passing chemical batons to each other,” the book says. “The constant chatter of billions of brain cells creates your entire world.”

The book compares the brains of mammals to those of crabs (the book is “written” by a crab after all) and notes that crabs have fewer neurons and of course are much smaller, but they have separate parts of their brains that control their eyes and their legs. Crabs are also capable of remembering things, using tools and solving puzzles.

Some animals’ brains allow them to know more about their world in different ways from humans, such as spiders being sensitive to vibrations in their webs and catfish having an amazing sense of taste, with taste sensors all over their bodies.

It notes that 95 percent of brain activity goes toward things we do unconsciously, like breathing, walking and catching a ball flying toward us. It also talks about dreams, memory, how our emotions try to predict the future, where brains came from and fun facts about brains. For example, did you know a sperm whale is believed to have the biggest brain of any creature that’s even lived? Their brains weigh 18 pounds, compared to just 2.5 pounds for humans.

Information on what creatures have the smallest brains, the toughest brains, the most brains and those who actually eat their own brains will delight kids (and maybe gross them out a little bit). They’ll also enjoy learning about the mycelium network of fungi, which is like a brain without a body, and slime molds, which are like a brain without a brain.

It ends talking about why human brains are so special because we’ve found ways to work together, communicate and build communities on a scale bigger than any other animal.

Kids and adults alike will enjoy this colorful, silly and informational book about brains!

About the book: 64 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by Wide Eyed Editions. Suggested retail price $19.99.

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