SOAPY SLIME FUN!!

This activity was FUN, REALLY FUN!! Kids love to get messy, it comes with being a kid as they explore their natural curiosity about the world around them. Messy-sensory play provides so many opportunities for learning, development and growth. Soapy Slime is a great mixture to encourage and promote this messy play with kids.

This time we made two different colours, yellow and red with the intention of creating a new colour, orange when we mixed the two colours together.To make Soapy Slime you will need 1 cup of soap flakes, 3 cups warm water, food colouring, large mixing bowl, large container or tray and an electric beater. You can find soap flakes at your local supermarket in the washing powder isle. As you beat the water, food colouring and soap flakes the mixture multiples, so I placed the large bowl on top of our container to catch the over flow.

Let’s Play 

We had scoops and funnels to play with the soapy slime but the kids seemed to prefer their hands. I never mentioned anything about the two different colours mixing together, I left this for them to discover and they did in time as the two colours became one giant blob of orange soapy slime.
Sensory play with soapy slime is a great opportunity for kids to explore and use descriptive words. Words to describe what they are experiencing, their senses and what they were feeling; slippery, slimy, soft, squishy and heavy and what it smells like.

WHY MESSY-SENSORY PLAY IS IMPORTANT? 

Messy play is important for young children, giving them endless ways to develop and learn. All types of play are essential for children’s development and early learning. Play helps children to develop and improve their gross and fine motor skills, co-ordination and concentration. Also how to work co-operatively and collaboratively, use all their senses to discover and explore their environment, and develop their imagination, creative thinking and ability to problem solve and experiment with solutions.


Tips to consider and don’t stress the mess:This activity looks very messy, well that is because IT IS! This can be understandably overwhelming for some parents but clean-up is quite easy if you plan ahead. Take the activity outdoors in a large tub, that way when finished playing all you need to do is hose everything off, even the kids!! This can be all part of the fun and experience! I also put my kids in their old clothes, no shoes and an apron which provided some protection. Have a towel handy for any accidents when kids forget they have soap on their hands and put it in their eyes.

Article extracted from Learning for Kids dot com