cloud dough

I have seen cloud dough on a number of blogs/websites since I began looking for activities a few months ago.  We tried it today and I can see why so many people have used it.  It has definitely become one of our new favorites.  We played outside today since the weather was so nice but I could see this being an awesome indoor activity when the weather is cold.  The common cloud dough recipe I found was:
- 1 cup of baby oil
- 8 cups of flour

8 cups of flour seemed like kind of a large amount to me for just M to play with so we made a half batch (1/2 cup of baby oil and 4 cups of flour).  This amount seemed to be just right for us today but I can see why the larger amounts would come in handy with more children.  I mixed it with my hands like kneading bread dough.  It mixed fairly quickly.

There were so many reasons why we loved cloud dough.  First of all, it feels really neat, which makes for an enjoyable sensory experience :)  It looks crumbly and grainy like sand but feels soft like flour.  It molds really easily.  It's not messy at all and easy to clean up - either toss it or save it in an airtight container.

Most of the places I read about cloud dough used a plastic basin for playing.  I put ours on a cookie sheet because I felt like it was less restrictive, plus we were outside and I had the luxury of just hosing down the patio when we finished.  If we were doing this indoors I would definitely use something with sides and I'd probably put him on newspaper or a plastic table cloth or something like that.  We used some of our sand table toys to play but for the most part I think M enjoyed using his hands.

And for easy baby/toy clean up...our water table: