DIY Kinetic Sand

I have been on the hunt for a good DIY kinetic sand recipe for while now. I wanted one that didn’t involve real sand (I have tried some of those in the past and ended up with a big mess) and one that didn’t involve flour (my husband is gluten free so I prefer activities that don’t involve flour in the house). When I found this recipe from MOTHERCOULD, I had to give it a try. I especially loved the idea that it is taste safe for little ones!

Recipe For DIY Kinetic Sand

What You Will Need:

• 1 cup baking soda
• ½ cup sugar
• ½ cup corn starch
• 1tbsp cream of tartar
• 4 tbsp of water, separated 
• Food coloring
• Medium bowl 
• Whisk

Instructions:

1. Pour the baking soda, sugar, cornstarch and cream of tartar into a bowl. Mix well.
2. Place a few drops of food coloring into ¼ cup of water
3. Add 2 tbsp of water to the mixture and use a whisk to mix
4. Add another 2 tbsp water and use a whisk to mix. This should create a snow like fluffy texture. 
5. Place in a refrigerator until cool

Tips:

I absolutely loved the texture of this recipe when I first made it. It was the most similar to store bought kinetic sand that I have found. Unfortunately, I made this at the beginning of my boys’ naptime and then let it sit out in the heat for a couple hours while my boys slept. It turned into a goopy mess. This DIY kinetic sand is best when stored in a refrigerator. 

Kinetic Sand Activity Ideas

Monster Truck Arena

My boys love all things monster trucks! At the request of my three year old, I created this monster truck arena out of a cardboard box. I made it before I had a blog so I didn’t take step by step pictures on how to create it but it is quite simple to make. I originally used a DIY kinetic sand recipe that involved real sand and it was a bit of a mess. This time I tried this new kinetic sand recipe and it worked much better. 

How To Create A Monster Truck Arena

What You Will Need:

Cardboard box, duct tape, DIY kinetic sand, monster trucks

Directions:

1. Open the top flaps of the cardboard box and fold them back
2. Duct tape all around the flaps back, creating monster truck ramps
3. Duct tape the flaps that are on the inside, bottom of the box down so that sand can’t get through
4. Fill box with DIY kinetic sand
5. Play!

Molds

Another fun activity to do with DIY kinetic sand, is to use baking molds to create shapes. My boys are super excited to go camping this summer in our new popup camper so I used little pine tree molds to create a simple camping play setup. 

More Activities

This DIY kinetic sand recipe involves baking soda so when you are finished with it, you can use it for fizzy activities by adding vinegar! We will be sharing some of our favorite fizzy activities later this week so be sure to check back in! 

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