Homemade Play Dough (and Easter Mountain!)

I know this may be a little late, but there might be a few of you out there that have time to make an Easter mountain/empty tomb on Friday morning to help teach your kids about Easter. If not, its still a very QUICK homemade play dough recipe that you can use for other crafts! This recipe and idea is from a book by Noel Piper about traditions. 

Play Dough
4 cups flour
1 1/2 cups salt
1 1/2 cups water
1 Tbs oil

Mix ingredients and knead. Add small amounts of water as needed until the texture is right.

For Easter Mountain:
1. Use two sticks bound together with twine to make a cross about five or six inches tall.

2. Shape the whole lump of play dough into a mountain. The size will be determined by the volume of your play dough. Leave an opening in one side into the "cave" that will represent the tomb, using your fist or a small object to hold the space open.

3. Press the cross into the top of the mountain to form a hole deep enough to stand the cross in (I just pushed mine the whole way through). Make the hole a bit larger than the actual stick because the hole will shrink as the mountain bakes.

4. Optional--twist toothpicks into the dough or press fork tines randomly around on the hill to make "footholds" for stick people.

5. Press the rock that will cover the tomb against the opening, to shape a better fit. Set the stone aside.

6. Bake at 250F for four to five hours (I maybe did two--outside is hard, inside isn't really). When cooled, color with markers or paint as desired.

You can then use pipe-cleaner people to act out the Easter Story using the cross and the tomb. Make sure to put Jesus in the tomb and cover with stone on Good Friday. On Easter Sunday your kids can wake up to an empty tomb!! (Assuming we, as parents, remember to remove the pretend Jesus we put in there!)