Easy Cloud Dough Recipe for Sensory Play

Some activities you set up, kids play with for five minutes, and you spend longer cleaning up than they did playing. Cloud dough is not one of those activities.

This stuff is addictive! Soft, squishy, a little crumbly, and completely satisfying to squish in your hands. Kids come back to it again and again, and it takes about two minutes to make.

What You’ll Need

• 2 cups cornflour
• 1 cup hair conditioner – any cheap one will do, but a scented one makes it even more fun
• A few drops of food colouring (optional)
• A mixing bowl
• A sensory tray or large container for play

The conditioner is what gives cloud dough its silky, soft texture – and it makes the whole thing smell amazing while you’re playing with it.

Important note: Because this recipe contains conditioner, it is not taste-safe. It’s best suited to children who are past the stage of putting everything in their mouths. Always supervise play.

How to Make Cloud Dough

Step 1: Mix Your Colour Into the Conditioner
If you’re adding food colouring, do this first. Pour your conditioner into the bowl and add a few drops of food colouring. Mix until the colour is evenly blended through before adding anything else. This gives you a much more even colour throughout the dough.

Step 2: Add the Cornflour
Add cornflour to the coloured conditioner and stir with a spoon to start bringing it together.

Step 3: Get Your Hands In
Once it gets too thick to stir, ditch the spoon and use your hands. Knead everything together until you have a soft, smooth dough that holds its shape when you press it but crumbles apart when you break it. That texture is exactly what you’re after.

If it’s too dry and crumbly, add a little more conditioner – a teaspoon at a time. If it’s too sticky, add a little more cornflour.

Step 4: Play!
Tip it into a sensory tray, large container or onto a bench or table and let them go for it.

Ideas for Cloud Dough Play

Cloud dough is one of those open-ended sensory materials that kids find their own way with. But if they need a starting point:

• Squish, squeeze and roll it into balls
• Use cookie cutters and plastic tools to cut and shape it
• Set up a mud kitchen-style scenario with scoops and cups
• Make multiple colours and let kids mix them together
• Add small toys, dinosaurs or gems for small world play
• Use it in a sensory bin with sand, shells or rocks

Tips for the Best Cloud Dough

Choose a conditioner you actually like the smell of – you’ll be smelling it the whole time. Coconut or fruity scents work brilliantly.

Make multiple colours in small separate batches and put them all out at once. Watching kids mix the colours together is part of the fun.

Store in an airtight container and it’ll keep for a few days. It may dry out slightly – just add a tiny bit more conditioner and knead it back together.

Pop a craft apron on before you start – food colouring and conditioner can stain clothes if kids get enthusiastic with the squishing. (And they will.)

Play outside or on a splat mat if you can. Cloud dough doesn’t spread far but it does crumble, and cornflour on carpet is nobody’s idea of a good time.

Why Kids Love Cloud Dough

It’s the texture. There’s something about the way cloud dough behaves – soft and mouldable one second, crumbly and satisfying the next – that kids just can’t leave alone. (It’s totally fun for adults too!). It’s genuinely therapeutic to play with, and it keeps them occupied for way longer than you’d expect from three ingredients and two minutes of prep.

Not to mention it also smells incredible!

Looking for more sensory play ideas? Take a look at our Messy Play & Sensory Play posts for more easy activities to do with kids.

For more screen-free activity ideas and messy play inspiration, join our community here.