Since the children have been interested in sensory experiences, Celine wondered what the children would do with different textured silicone mats as well as silicone boats.
The children felt the textures of the mats and Matthias matched the large purple mat with the smaller one. Matthias balanced the mats and boats on his and Melody’s heads. Matthias and Millie walked on the mats in their bare feet to feel the bumpy textures.
To extend this activity we wondered what the children would do with the textured mats being under paper to paint or colour with as well as to see what the children would do with the boats in the water. So, the next day Melody set the mats under paper and provided paint. Matthias went right to painting with a makeup brush. He had a big canvas to paint on which made him excited. Melody modelled how to paint for Ari and soon he was doing it by himself. Millie felt the bumpy texture of one mat under the paper by rubbing her fingers back and forth over it. She poured the paint out of the bowls, to do some finger painting, and later she banged her hands on the paper. Splash! The following day, we tested out the same activity with crayons to see if the patterns can be seen through the paper. Jaspreet set up the different textured silicon mats under the brown paper to see if the patterns could be seen through it or not when coloured on. Matthias came over and started colouring using markers first. He drew some lines and then tried using crayons. He held three crayons together in his hand and started colouring on the paper. He then touched the paper with his hands and felt the bumpy surface on the table. Melody pointed out that this made his line zig zag. Matthias also shared some crayons with Millie as she joined him at the table. Melody helped Millie to hold the crayons and colour on the paper. She loved banging on the paper using her hands and laughed listening to the sound produced as she banged on it. Ari came over and tried to draw lines using crayons & markers. He laughed looking at the paper as Shannon helped him to colour using the crayons. Melody co-learned with the children as she learned that the crayons made the print of the pattern over the markers, which she found to be quite interesting.
To finish off Celine's extension of this activity, the silicone boats and mats were added to some buckets of water for the children to explore. Matthias and Beau came over and started picking up the boats from the water. They shook the silicone mats and splashed water on each other. Millie explored the textures mats as she touched them and took them out of the water. Melody found it interesting that the children gravitated to the mats more than the boats that were in the water.
As an extension to this activity, we could bring other things in to see if they would float or sink in water.
