Irresistible Ideas for play based learning

Last week the children made goop and had a ball with it. Their interest didn’t really wane. It was dried out the next day but they found it was fun adding more water and bringing it back to life. Nevertheless, we thought we’d jazz it up a bit with some food dye.

At first the children kept all the colours separate…

But that didn’t last long as it was much more fun to dip into each others’ tubs and mix it all up.

Not only did it end up covering all surfaces, it quickly became a cack green. Luckily it all either washes off really easily or sweeps up when left to dry.

Out of interest, not all children think goup is gorgeous.

Our friend Jesse was very quick to the goop table this morning before we added the colour.

BUT he was not at all impressed when he dived his hands into the mix …

“Ummmm, ohhhh, Sheeerrrrry, Donnnaaaaa! Oh nooo  It’s feel, oh noooo!”

When Sherry asked Jesse what he thought it would feel like when he put his hands into the goop …

he looked up at her with big wide eyes and replied, “Ohhhh like ohhhh, a t-shirt?”

Hmm, wonder if goop would work in plastic bags as successfully as our finger paint did a little while ago?

Donna found a great activity on a blog she regularly checks out, welcome to our wonderland, and discovered how to make homemade water colour paints. Everything you need is found right in your kitchen – equal quantities of vinegar, corn flour and bi-carb soda. We provided food colouring as well as graters and chalk for a different sort of colouring ingredient.

We like to make all our activities look irresistible. Here some strips of coloured paper under a clear plastic sheet makes all the difference!

See what we mean? Here’s the same set up without the irresistible touch. BORING!

We made a recipe sheet for the children to follow with clear and simple instructions.

First of all they put 1 tablespoon of vinegar into a baby food jar.

Then added food colouring or ….

… grated chalk to make the powdered colouring.

Then they added 1 tablespoon of corn flour …

and gave it a good mix.

Lastly in went 1 tablespoon of bi-carb soda.

Some mixes frothed up like crazy and overflowed the containers!

They spooned their mixtures into bottle tops and egg cartons. We decided to let it all sit overnight to be used the next day. You can use it straight away if you choose.

Making our own concoctions is such fun!

It got everywhere, as usual!!!

What gorgeous colours they produced!!

The next day we got to use our home made paints.

It was a really interesting texture.

The children really enjoyed using something they had made themselves.

This was a terrific creative activity incorporating literacy, maths, science and lots  and lots of fun, and  WE SO LOVE IT when that happens!

All throughout the year we compile a portfolio for each child. We call them “Memory Books“. They consist of our observations, parent’s contributions, children’s art work and stories, photos of them in action and the different incursions and excursions we do together.

At the end of the year they are given to the families as a very special present from their kindergarten children.

They are completed now and the children have had their final look through them…

… decorated the covers using posca pens and wrapped them up.

For their wrapping paper, we placed a mixture of bright edicol-coloured water by the easel and big sheets of paper.

The variety of beautiful paintings …

… with their incredible colours …

… took our breath away!!

Spectacular!

We didn’t worry about naming them as the children understood that we would be sharing the paper around, so they simply choose a sheet they liked when the time came to wrap.

::: make it irresistible :::

We love to have our easels set up outside and we find that the children love it too. In fact we’ve noticed that many more children are drawn to the painting experience when the easels are outside.

Using edicol-coloured water like we did here, can create a real mess under the easel (then again can’t all paint!)…

… so we have a large piece on lino on the ground …

… so we can easily mop up any spills.

Of course this would be a great advantage on the floor inside as well!