Cornstarch Clay

I love Pumpkin Patch and her Messy Monday posts because almost every single one I've seen has been added to my que of activities to do with my boys. Among those was Cornstarch Clay.
Recently we had a friend come play with K for a few hours and after exhausting all of my normal activities, I thought this might be a fun thing to do. I love watching little hands work and get messy...as long as the mess is controlled.
To make cornstarch clay, you need:

• 2 C salt (yes, really 2 cups!)
• 1 1/3 C cold water
• 1 cup cornstarch

1. Mix the salt with 2/3 C water and bring to a boil.
2. Mix cornstarch with the other 2/3 C water in a separate bowl. 
3. Turn off the heat once your salt water is boiling, but leave it on the burner.
4. Stir in the cornstarch water mixture and keep stirring until a dough forms. This can take a little while and gets really thick!
5. Turn your dough onto a cutting board or plate and allow to cool until you can handle it. We cheated and stuck it in the freezer because I was that desperate for something to entertain these boys!
6. Once it's cool enough, knead the dough for a little while until it becomes a smooth dough.
7. Smoosh, scrunch, mash, cut, and whatever those little hands want to do to your clay. Make fun shapes and leave them to dry (the bigger the shapes, the longer it takes to dry...ours took a few days sitting outside).

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Word of caution...if you make dinosaurs, or really any carnivorous creature, you may want to separate them lest they eat each other while your back is turned :). That or keep the neighborhood cats away!

Make sure your kids don't eat these, and have tons of fun!

I'm linking up to Tot Tuesdays @ Delicious Ambiguity, and Mad Skills Monday @ Super Stinky Boys.