Handling malleable materials is always a popular activity in early years settings. Try this mixture as an alternative to playdough, clay and gloop.
Always check for allergies to any of the ingredients used.
Planned learning intentions
To have a strong exploratory impulse
To explore malleable materials by patting, stroking, poking, squeezing, pinching and twisting them
To begin to describe the texture of things
To further explore an experience using a range of senses
You will need:
Mixture one: 3 or 4 cups of water 31 cup of PVA glue 3food colouring)
Mixture two: 2 teaspoons of Borax (available from chemists and art shops)
* half a cup of warm water Step by step
* Stir the ingredients of the two mixtures in separate bowls.
* Pour the contents of Mixture 1 into Mixture 2 and stir vigorously.
* Pull out the resulting mixture and knead it together for a few minutes.
* It is ready for use and will keep for several weeks in an airtight container.
Activities
* Encourage the children to handle the mixture freely to observe how it behaves - pull, stretch, squeeze, pat.
* Model vocabulary to describe how the mixture looks, smells, sounds and feels and invite the children to use their own words. Note the suggested words on a large sheet of paper and then read the list together.
* Make comparisons between appearance, smell, sound, texture and behaviour of the mixture and other malleable materials the children know, such as dough, clay, gloop, shaving foam and soapflakes.
* Make two mixtures of contrasting colours and explore what happens when they are mixed during play.
* Invite children to invent a name for their mixture, based on the properties they have discovered. Use 'gloop' as an example of a descriptive name.
Thanks to House of Eden Nursery, Aycliffe village, County Durham for this suggestion