Today the children have been exploring gloop. This is really easy to make, for anyone that doesn’t know its just cornflour (available in the bakery aisle at supermarkets) and water. I didn’t want the children to be restricted to small trays of gloop to explore, so emptied about 5 packets into our sand tray (still could have done with a bit more). The children love this activity and I must admit there is something addictive about the feel of the gloop running through your fingers (I do this activity for the children – honest!)
So how did the children explore and what did they learn:
They explored the properties of gloop, noticing that it changed from liquid to solid form and exploring how to get it to change its form.
They developed their social skills as they explored together and watched and imitated each other explorations. Also finding it highly amusing to ‘accidentally’ drip the gloop on each other.
They strengthened the muscles in their finger as they worked hard to scrape the gloop up from the bottom of the tray.
They used their whole body in their attempts to manipulate the gloop.
They found opportunities to practise their mark-making as one little girl told me she was ‘writing her name’ on her arm.
One good thing about this activity is that gloop easily brushes off clothes when it is dry and also hoses away easily (though you need to put the gloop in the bin and not down the drain for obvious reasons!)
