This morning I decided to try a new sensory play experience with the children that two of my childminder friends were talking about at playgroup. It was so simple, and a really lovely activity, and as an added bonus the cleaning up afterwards was a doodle!!
Mix together cornflour and washing up liquid - that is it, done! I didn't know the quantities so I just guessed and got there in the end - my advice is add the washing up liquid slowly and mix it with your hands - eventually it will come together and form a sort of dough.
The (newly named) soap gloop was a fabulous sensory experience - you can mould it into shapes, squish it, snap it and stretch it - and it smells fabulous! And when you have finished playing all you need is running water to wash your hands and they are then squeaky clean! The children loved it, and so did I!
As the parents of the children in my care know, at the beginning of each year I produce a planning document detailing dates throughout the year that we may celebrate - I make it clear that I will always follow the current interests of the children, if a child is not interested in the things I had planned, or has other interests at that point in time then I will not plough ahead with my planning regardless.
Last Friday was St. David's Day - I was only caring for O, and on Fridays when it is much quieter than our very busy Thursdays, O likes to do activities that I plan, as well as going to our usual Friday morning group. We talked about St. David's Day, and O was excited to tell me that he had been to Wales. We talked about the daffodils and O made a lovely pinwheel daffodil - we also looked at the daffodils that O planted a very long time ago and were delighted to see that they were growing in their little pots.
After lunch O helped me to make some Welsh cakes - this was a great baking activity for O, as he doesn't really like the food mixer that we have used to make our fairy cakes in the past, and we didn't need the food mixer as we mixed everything by hand! O helped me to weigh the ingredients, then he enjoyed the sensory experience of mixing everything with his hands - the butter was very squishy, and the eggs were slimy - it was very good fun!
I cooked the cakes, and O ate the first one when it was warm straight out of the pan - he said they were yummy!
