Play Dough Dolphin

The local Regal Cinema theater is doing their annual summer movie festival for the kids, showing dollar films on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Today's selection was Dolphin Tale. Both of my kids love animal movies so I thought this would be a good activity for us. It was. They both loved it! Even my younger one that can sometimes have trouble sitting through an entire film. (Although she had to go to the bathroom at the very end, causing me to miss last 5 minutes! Ahhh!)

As we were leaving the theater the kids wanted to keep the fun from the movie going. So in the car on the way home we came up with the idea of making dolphin sculptures just like the dolphin we just got done watching.

First we made some homemade play dough. I've tried many recipes over the years and like this one because it's not gritty like some homemade versions can get.
Mix together with a wire whisk:
          1 c flour
          1/4 c salt
          2 T cream of tartar
          1 c water
          1 T vegetable oil
It should look like thick glue.

Cook over med heat stirring with spoon constantly for about 3-5 minutes. You'll know you're done when it turns into a solid ball. Remove from heat.

Add food coloring. We made the whole batch a blue-ish color, trying to make a blue-gray for dolphin skin. Then we started shaping. My son's turned into a shark somewhere along the way, because he thought sharks were "much cooler than dolphins". My daughter made about 8 different versions before she asked me to finish it up for her. (Although she gave me explicit direction while I was sculpting on exactly how it should look.)

We're letting them dry over night (they'll probably take a couple of days) and then we'll have our dolphin keepsakes!