• naturalLiving
  • activitiesfor kids
  • Easyrecipes
  • yourhome
  • just formoms
  • Start Here
  • About
  • Start Here
  • About
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Shop
  • Natural Living
    • Essential Oils
    • Natural Homemade Ideas
    • Natural Solutions
  • Activities for Kids
    • Arts and Crafts
    • Playdough and Slime
    • Sensory Activities
  • Recipes
  • For Your Home
    • Backyard Chickens
    • Easy DIY Projects & Crafts
    • Organizing Tips
    • Tips and Hacks
  • For Moms
    • Caring for Yourself
    • Parenting
    • Product Reviews
    • Travel
  • About
  • Start Here
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • SHOP
↑

Living Well Mom

I help moms with simple, natural ways to look after their families. Find recipes, fun stuff for kids, and simple DIY ideas. Plus natural solutions made easy peasy!

  • naturalLiving
  • activitiesfor kids
  • Easyrecipes
  • yourhome
  • just formoms
  • Start Here
  • About
  • Home
  • Seasonal
  • Essential Oils
  • Natural Solutions
  • Autism

Homemade Playdough with a Patriotic Twist

By Brenda P in Activities for Kids

indoor activity patriotic sensory activityThis post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Summer is just around the corner, but that doesn’t mean learning has to stop. You can make your very own DIY playdough with a patriotic twist and expand your children’s learning and sensory fun at home.

pinterest graphic for red, white and blue playdough this idea now...

In this post, you’ll learn how to make simple DIY playdough in three patriotic colors. Plus, I’ll show you exactly how you can turn it into a fun 4th of July activity for kids! This playdough recipe offers variations for learning sight words, patriotic vocabulary, a flag, and learning letters!

Easy DIY Playdough

Red, white, and blue DIY playdough stacked together.

One of my favorite things to make for my kids is DIY playdough. It’s honestly so easy to put together, and it feels great to know that it’s perfectly safe if a kid decides to shove a bit in his or her mouth.

Not only that but making playdough at home will cost you pennies. You likely already have everything you need to make it right at home!

Kids will have a blast playing with this DIY playdough. Store it in an airtight container and it will last for months. It’s a simple, long-lasting project that your kids will absolutely love!

How to make Patriotic DIY Playdough

Supplies for making DIY playdough

Making DIY playdough is simple! All you need are basic household supplies such as:

  • Cream of tartar
  • Flour
  • Salt
  • Water
  • Vegetable oil
  • Food coloring (we used red and blue)
  • Small storage container

I recommend following along with my classic DIY playdough recipe here – it’s easy to make and ready in less than 10 minutes.

Plus, if you want to play along with the fourth of July kids activities below, you may want to grab some alphabet beads like the ones pictured above.

Tips for Making This DIY Playdough Recipe

American flag made out of playdough on a white background.

Having made this homemade playdough a few dozen times (at least!), I’ve learned some tips and tricks to make it even easier.

  • Mix your dry ingredients and then add the wet a little at a time to keep your dough from being too sticky.
  • We’ve found that bleached flour works better than unbleached.
  • You want to use all-purpose flour rather than cake flour or bread flour.
  • Add in the food coloring before you heat your DIY playdough to ensure it mixes in.
  • For bold colors like the red and blue in this project, you’ll want to add a lot of gel food coloring.

Troubleshooting DIY Playdough Issues

Stack of red, white, and blue playdough piled together

If you follow the recipe, you likely won’t run into any issues. However, these are some common things readers have had pop up, and how they can be easily fixed.

If your dough is a bit sticky, you can add a little more flour. We found that using this gel food coloring makes brighter colors than using liquid food coloring.

Once your playdough is completely cool, spend some time kneading it. This will make it even softer and help give it a “finished” look.

Making white playdough can be a bit tricky. If your dough turned out more yellow than white, it’s likely due to using unbleached flour. Make sure you’re using bleached flour and the lightest color of vegetable oil possible. Otherwise, you’ll end up with a dough that’s a bit yellow.

4th of July Activities for Kids to Try with Your Patriotic Playdough

Playdough can be more than just a sensory experience. We like to use DIY playdough as a learning tool for preschoolers and kindergarten kids. We did three fun patriotic variations with our homemade playdough.

Playdough Sight Words

American flag made out of playdough

We used alphabet beads and our playdough to spell out patriotic sight words. For some weird reason, our alphabet blocks didn’t have any Cs in them, so we were limited in the words we could spell. But my kids enjoyed spelling these patriotic words:

  • July Fourth
  • Independence Day
  • Patriotic
  • United States

You can also use alphabet beads to spell out other non-patriotic sight words, too.

Playdough Flag

American flag made out of red, white, and blue playdough.

Roll out your red, white, and blue playdough and make it into a 3D flag. If you make it big enough, you might be able to add all 50 state stars! That would certainly keep kids busy for a while. 🙂

Child adding stars to an American flag made out of playdough

Playdough Letters

USA spelled out using playdough

Roll out the playdough and use it to form letters and numbers if your kids aren’t old enough for sight words. The act of rolling out the dough builds those fine motor skills, and it’s a fun alternative to just making playdough snails.

Of course, you aren’t limited to just spelling out “USA”, although that certainly is a great option. Some other appropriate phrases and words to try include:

  • America
  • Independence
  • 4th of July
  • 1776
  • Freedom

Or any other word that’s meaningful to your family.

Child spelling USA with red, white, and blue playdough

Patriotic Playdough: Final Thoughts

I hope you and your children enjoy these fun Patriotic homemade playdough activity ideas just as much as we did. These activities are fun to play all year long, and your child can pair playtime with learning time without ever knowing it.

Leave a comment and tell me what your children loved and if you came up with any of your own homemade playdough activities.

Pin the picture below to find the instructions later!

Pinterest graphic for DIY playdough with a patriotic twist

 

Dear Mom, Join the Living Well Mom Insiders

You’ll get exclusive content, “Sunshine for Your Day,” and more stuff Erika doesn’t share anywhere else!
    By entering your info, you’ll become a LWM Insider! Everything is delivered straight to your email inbox. You can unsubscribe at any time.

    Filed Under: Activities for Kids, Patriotic, Playdough and Slime, Seasonal Tagged With: indoor activity, patriotic, sensory activityPublished on May 6, 2020

    You May Also Love

    printed road trip bingo game in white binder with green travel binder behind
    Printable Road Trip Games with a Fun DIY Travel Binder For Kids
    Pile of gluten free peanut butter cookies with bowl of peanut butter in the background.
    Chewy Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Cookies
    32+ Fun Outdoor Activities for Kids (That Will Keep Them Busy!)

    Comments

    1. Kay @ antlikeme says

      June 17, 2018 at 4:49 am

      Thanks so much for this. My girls and I are going to create it this weekend.

      Reply

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Erika Bragdon sitting on a bench drinking a drink out of her mug

    Welcome! I’m Erika and I’m the creator behind Living Well Mom.

    More About Erika

    The Latest

    • Old-Fashioned Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Recipe
    • Printable Road Trip Games with a Fun DIY Travel Binder For Kids
    • Easy Homemade Fruit and Veggie Wash (That Actually Works)
    • Chewy Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Cookies
    • 32+ Fun Outdoor Activities for Kids (That Will Keep Them Busy!)

    Trending Now

    • playdough in a container Make the Easiest Homemade Playdough Recipe That Lasts for Months {With Video!}

    • outside holding tick spray bottle with dog Simple All-Natural Tick Repellent for Dogs – with Video!

    • Taco Pizza is a great as an easy family dinner (you can even make it the night before) or a tasty appetizer. Kids love this recipe and the cream cheese/sour cream “sauce” and spicy taco flavor are a hit with adults too. Taco Pizza – The BEST Easy Dinner Recipe

    • homemade macaroni and cheese on plate Easy Baked Mac and Cheese Recipe (That Your Kids Will Actually Eat!)

    • big strong homemade bubble solution How to Make Bubble Solution (Easy + Strong Bubbles)

    • Hand pressed into a ball of fluffy slime Fluffy Dish Soap “Slime” (Borax Free)

    • Home
    • Seasonal
    • Essential Oils
    • Natural Solutions
    • Autism

    Living well is a journey not a destination

    copyright ©2025, Living Well Mom. / Site by Pixel Me Designs
    Privacy PolicyTerms & ConditionsDisclaimer
    78 shares
    • 16