Overview
There are a lot of great recipes out in the world for playdough, paint, and sensory play concoctions, but for kids, the process of creating the concoctions is just as learning rich as play with the finished product. Mixing it up is half the fun. All the scooping, stirring, measuring, mixing, kneading, and the like leads kids to preliteracy and prenumeracy learning, problem solving, and small-muscle development. When they mix up recipes in groups, they get real-world, real-time social skills practice.
Ingredients
bowls
spoons
measuring cups
ingredients (Use your imagination: water, flour, dirt, food coloring, ice, sand, oatmeal, glitter, and so on.)
hand-washing bucket, washcloths, and towels
Process
1. Plop the materials in a mess-friendly location.
2. Step back and let the children mix it up, and then follow their lead. Support their play with materials and assistance as needed.
More Play Adventures
• Promote repeatability. Suggest kids keep track of how much of this and that they add to their random mixtures so they will be able to re-create the mixture if they come up with something really neat. Help them name and record their recipes. You could even create your own classroom play-concoction recipe book.
• Encourage variations on a theme. Start out with a few components (water and coffee grounds, for example) in a large container, and then see how many different concoctions the children can mix up in smaller containers from that base.
• Follow recipes. All those recipes we mentioned in the chapter overview? Collect some from books, Pinterest, and other places and then let the kids mix them up. Help as much as is needed—but no more.
• Hit the kitchen. Why not get children involved in mixing up edibles in the kitchen? It’s a great offshoot of these activities. Plus, kids will feel really empowered, trusted, respected, and valued when they get to make things for their playmates to eat.
Don’t sit here waiting, go to the next chapter for some gravity painting . . .
