Edible Sand Recipe for summer

Easy homemade play sand made using pantry ingredients. Ah! summer is here and the children love playing in the sand. Couple of years ago they had a ball making an island in our sandbox ( time to do that again!) They also loved making beach creatures. This season, we want to kick off summer fun with this simple “edible sand” recipe using basic pantry ingredients. You can keep this scented play sand as loose dry sand which is great for scooping and pouring or with a bit of extra water you can keep them moldable as real damp beach sand. The scent and the colors turn out gorgeous. and honestly the preparation is so simple. This below is NOT a carefully created sand art. The children were absolutely mesmerized playing with the sand that they strictly said ” no camera when we are playing” hahahah. So I respected their wishes ( commands?) and waited until they were done. But right in the middle of their play time I hear ” mom, come over here! You have to take a picture! This cupcake we made is gorgeous” Of course it is.. They did a lot of scooping and pourning and realized that they created a wonderful piece of sand art during their play time. They were multiple cakes and rainbow cupcakes. and lava cakes. ( I mean real, red hot lava cakes.) Their chance creation of sand art led them to create a more intentional sand art in a cup. Now on to the simple recipe for edible sand. Materials

• 1/2 cup Corn Meal
• 2 envelopes of Kool Aid
• Spoons

Place 1/2 cup of cornmeal in a container. Add 2 envelopes of Kool-Aid (unsweetened drink mix) for every 1/2 cup for the best color and scent. Add about 1/4 tbsp of water. Water is added for the drink mix to give out its vibrant color and scent. Mix thoroughly with hands or a spoon until the color spreads evenly. If you want a more moldable sand, add more water.. Place them in separate containers and place the lot in a big shallow plastic tub. The children can enjoy the colors first and then we all know what happens! They enjoy the mixing process even more. Cornmeal in itself is a fantastic sensory material. We first used it in our alphabet sensory bin. Then in our desert sensory bin and in our fall activities for math post. Note: remember the cornmeal is yellow and the color you add with mix in and give you a secondary color. The green sand you see is actually cornmeal and blue Kool-Aid.

Thanks for reading

We went ahead and tried making a dough with the play sand and it turned out so good.

How to make sand dough

Amazon.com Widgets

Check out our resourceful e-book filled with many preschool play ideas.

We have also collaborated on another e-book with simple and practical baby play ideas.