This week we were inspired by all of the Valentine’s Day candy in Target to come up with a new play dough recipe and science experiment – Red Hot Play Dough!

Here’s what we used:

• 2 cups of flour
• 1 cup of salt
• 1 cup of cornstarch
• 1/4 cup of cream of tartar
• 2 cups of hot water
• 2 teaspoons of oil
• 1 box of Red Hots candy

(We used our crock pot play dough recipe, even though the consistency isn’t as good, because we needed the water for the Red Hots.)

Before we made the play dough we did a little experiment to see what would happen to the Red Hots if we put them in hot water.  We decided to put 20 candies into the water and the big kids made a prediction about what they thought would happen to the candy.

Their prediction: The water would turn red and the candy would turn white.

After a couple of minutes we checked the candy and discovered that the water was definitely turning red, but the candies weren’t turning white at all.  They decided to modify their prediction and concluded that the candies would completely disappear into the water.

And they were right!  The candies completely dissolved and turned the water bright red and cinnamon-y.

We then put our crock pot on low and added all the ingredients.

Then a little over an hour later we had this yummy smelling play dough that was…pink!  The kids were a little disappointed, we had been calling it Red Hot Play Dough after all, and decided that we would dissolve the entire box of Red Hots in the water next time to see what would happen.

If you had time you could put other types of candies or food into hot water to see what happens.  Depending on their age and ability levels the kids can record their predictions and even graph their results.  This would be a great activity to do while waiting for the play dough to cook in the crock pot.  There is always a lot of fun and learning to be had during a cooking activity!

Try Red Hot Play Dough this Valentine’s Day (with the whole box) and let us know what you think!

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