Aromatherapy Playdough Sensory Set

Standard playdough ingredients: flour, salt, cream of tartar, oil, boiling water

Instant coffee grounds, ground cinnamon, rose water, and dried crushed mint

Food coloring: brown, tan, pink, green

Labeled zip bags

Make four batches of playdough, scenting each differently: coffee, cinnamon, rose, mint.

Color-code them: brown for coffee, tan for cinnamon, pink for rose, green for mint.

Seal in labeled bags and let cool completely.

Present all four and ask your child to smell and guess each scent. No peeking at labels.

Let them choose one to sculpt with. After a while, switch to a different scent.

Ask: "How does the cinnamon one smell different from the coffee? Which is your favorite?"

Challenge a multi-scent sculpture — a flower with rose petals, a mint stem, coffee soil, and cinnamon bark.

Coffee dough smells incredibly realistic and has a gorgeous earthy brown color from the grounds.

Crushed dried mint leaves give the dough both scent and visual speckled texture.

The warmth of kneading releases more scent, so the smell gets stronger as your child plays.

Challenge them to describe each scent using three words. This builds descriptive vocabulary.

Store separately in sealed bags — the scents stay strong for about a week.