Whittaker Homeschool Journal: Halloween Salt Dough

Basic Salt Dough Recipe:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup salt
1 cup warm water

Combine salt and water, and let sit for a minute or 2 to let salt dissolve. Add flour, and mix until dough starts to form. Knead with your hands in the bowl, or on a floured surface until a smooth dough has been achieved. Create project. Bake in a 200 degree F oven for 1-4 hours or until completely dry. Paint and embellish as desired!

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I split our dough in half, and rolled half with a floured rolling pin. Then used Halloween cookie cutters to make shakes of flying Halloween creatures (bats, witches, and ghosts.) I then used a straw to put holes in the Halloween shapes for hanging later. The other half of the dough I split between my kids for them to make pumpkins. (Note that since these are preschool and younger children, the pumpkins were solid and took longer to dry in the oven. Older children can roll our their dough and form it over a ball of aluminum foil to get their shape without using as much dough/ drying time.) I had each child remove a small piece of their dough, then roll the rest between their hands to create a ball shape. They place the ball on the table and made an indentation on top of the ball with their finger. Then used the small removed piece of dough, to attach as a stem. We baked these, then painted them orange with brown stems on a different day. After we painted the pumpkins, I provided Halloween colors of paint, and let the kids paint the cutouts. After they dried, we strung yarn through these, and tied them to baby hangers to hang as Halloween mobiles!

An unpainted salt dough pumpkin, and the painting underway!