Magic Dough Cross Craft
Try this fun Magic Dough cross craft to explore different textures and materials with your kiddos!
This post may contain affiliate links. You don’t pay anything extra, but I get a small commission. Thank you for supporting Borrowed Blessings!
We tried using Crayola’s Magic Dough for the first time recently – it was so fun! My husband, 3 year old daughter and myself all explored the Magic Dough. It’s sort of a cross between playdough and air dry clay… it’s a very lightweight squishy dough, which will air dry (but doesn’t get as hard as air dry clay).
Supplies:
Magic Dough (1 pack per child)
Textured rolling pins or playdough tools
Alternative materials to add texture: plastic forks, disposable flossers, plastic/paper straws, etc.
Cross cookie cutters
Crayola markers
Plastic straws
String
Scissors
Tip: While you’re buying supplies on Amazon, don’t forget to use this money-saving tip!
Instructions:
Give each kid a package of Magic Dough. (Typically buying materials in bulk is least expensive, but the Magic Dough is actually cheaper right now in the classroom pack. Score!)
Note: I asked my husband to grab a table cover because I wasn’t sure if the Magic Dough would leave a residue (it didn’t). The table cover he brought me was metallic silver… so sorry if the pictures are hard to see! The Magic Dough didn’t leave a residue, though. In the future, I wouldn’t worry about using a tablecover. I’d just let our kids make these on our plastic tables, then wipe them down with cleaning wipes afterwards.
Let the kids squish and explore the Magic Dough. If you’d like your Magic Dough to have a color tint, use a Crayola marker to color on part of the dough, then knead it for a few minutes. The marker acts like food coloring to tint the dough.
Use playdough tools or a regular rolling pin to roll the dough out flat. We actually flattened some of the Magic Dough by rolling over it with a marker.
Stamp the Magic Dough into a cross shape. We ordered a 3 pack of these cross cookie cutters. The size worked well! We were able to make 3 crosses out of 2 packs of Magic Dough.
Let kids add texture to their crosses. I really wanted to try these textured rolling pins, but decided to be more frugal and creative… so we set out to make our own textures! We tried several items to make texture ( plastic forks, disposable flossers, plastic/paper straws, etc).
Use part of a disposable straw to stamp a hole in the top of the cross (you can cut each straw into 2-3 pieces ahead of time – it doesn’t take much to punch out the hole). Push the end of the straw into your cross, then spin it around to create a small hole.
Optional: You can decorate the crosses now using Crayola markers (yes, on the not-yet-dry dough!).
Let the crosses air dry. We laid them on small sheets of aluminum foil for 24 hours, flipped them over, then let them dry another 24 hours. After 2 days, they were completely dry… they don’t get super solid (they remain slightly squishy).
Once the crosses are dry, you can add a piece of string to hang them with.
Fair warning: once they’re dry, you can still tear/break the Magic Dough… my 3 year old shared this valuable lesson with us… twice. 🙂 If you’re working with kids that may not be gentle with the dried crosses, you might be better off with a true air dry (or baked) clay.
Follow Borrowed Blessings for more faith-based resources & ideas!