This gingerbread playdough recipe is the perfect winter sensory play activity. Combine the homemade gingerbread playdough with a few loose parts, and your child will have all kinds of fun creating their very own gingerbread men! (This post contains affiliate links.)
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After reading the story, The Gingerbread Man, both at school and home numerous times, my preschooler has been very interested in all things gingerbread! I decided to build on his gingerbread interest by making some homemade gingerbread playdough.
I set the gingerbread playdough up with some gingerbread man cookie cutters (which you can later use for making your own gingerbread cookies or cutting sandwiches into gingerbread man shapes) and other loose parts. Theo had tons of fun creating all kinds of gingerbread men!
Winter Sensory Play: Gingerbread Playdough
I used our favorite playdough recipe to make this gingerbread playdough. It’s super quick and easy and smells wonderful!
Ingredients for Gingerbread Playdough
- 1 cup flour
- 1/2 cup salt
- 1 tablespoon cream of tartar
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 3 tablespoons pumpkin pie spice (or a combination of cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, and ginger)
- 1 cup water
- Parchment paper or wax paper (or other surface for kneading playdough)
Directions for Making Gingerbread Playdough
1. Mix all the ingredients together. (Your child can help measure the ingredients with you and mix them together before putting the mixture on the stove.)
2. Put the mixture in a saucepan and stir it continually over medium-low heat until it forms a ball.
3. Take it off the heat and dump it onto parchment paper or wax paper (or other safe surface). Once it’s cool enough to touch, knead it to help make it smooth.
Doesn’t it smell wonderful? Be sure to seal it in an airtight container when you’re not using it so it won’t dry out. It will last up to two weeks!
Tips:
– I used pumpkin pie spice because I had tons leftover from Thanksgiving, but you can use your own combination of cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger. There’s no “right” amount.
– You don’t need to add any coloring to this dough. The spices make it the perfect gingerbread color!
– Instead of adding the spices while cooking the dough, you can let the kids add the spices on their own. Just make the recipe without the pumpkin pie spice. Kids can knead the spices into the dough on their own after the dough has been cooked!
Playing with the Gingerbread Playdough
I set the gingerbread playdough out with two different sized gingerbread men cookie cutters, a little rolling pin, as well as some googly eyes, buttons and a small bit of white playdough. (I purchased my cookie cutters at a local store, but here are some online that look good: comfort grip cookie cutter, set of holiday cookie cutters, gingerbread family cookie cutters, and a pretty copper cookie cutter.)
I showed Theo how to roll out the playdough and then use the cookie cutter to create a gingerbread man.
He had so much fun creating his own! Aren’t they adorable? And the whole time we were playing, the house smelled just like Christmas!
When we were done creating, we put our playdough away to save for later in the day when Lucy will be home from school. I’m sure we’ll be seeing lots of Lucy-inspired gingerbread men soon!