Imagine for a moment, the feeling of play dough squishing through your fingers, or slime trickling down your hand and creating a stringy substance that stretches and bounces, or the touch of warm water, and the sensations felt when you come in contact with it.
This has been the experience with our afterschool program group, as sensory exploration has been a big part of our time together.
It all began with Madison, who asked for the opportunity to create her own slime with flour, soap, water and lots of kneading. “When it is ready, I will announce it to everyone so they can come try my slime,” she said. Some of the children watched as she worked, wondering with anticipation of how the slime was going to turn out.
Graziella had made play dough for the group to explore as well. Samuel and Catherine got to work, moulding, squishing and sharing ideas with one another. “I think mine looks like a ghost,” Catherine shared with Samuel. He smiled and said, “Yeah kind of.”
Once the slime was ready for the children to explore, Madison made her big announcement during snack time. “Okay listen up everyone, when you’re done snack you can wash your hands and try the slime I made. It will be at that table,” she explained while pointing. She also helped her peers by handing out similar sized portions for all to share. Cari, praise and Catherine began testing how long the slime would expand to. “Janeth, look at this!” Cari said. “Wow look how long mine is!” Catherine joined in showing everyone her expanding slime.
Educator Janeth provided a provocation of sensory bottles with food colouring and measuring scoops. “What are we doing with this?” Moyosola asked. “What do you think we can do with these?” Janeth asked. Cari joined in and asked “Can we add water to it?” “Sure,” Janeth said. Other children came and showed curiosity. “What if we add soap?” Braya asked. “Why not?” Janeth questioned. Their eyes lit up as if all the ideas in their minds began to flow. Soon, Tarasha, Lincoln, James M., Olivia and Geetan joined in the exploration. “I’m making a potion.” Cari shared. “What if your potion can give you superpowers?” Olivia asked her. “I like that idea,” she replied. “Janeth look,” Olivia said, “My bottle looks like I have a black potion.” “Wow, how did you do that?” Lincoln asked. “I’m not so sure, maybe the colour I put in?” She replied. The children were expressing their thoughts and ideas, which strengthens relationships in the groups and builds on confidence and language abilities. Also, the ability to stay focused on a task was supported through this play while allowing their imaginative ideas to be evident.
To continue fostering these skills, Educator Shrishti brought a different activity for further exploration. There was a tray with food colouring, shaving cream, scoops and a few spoons. “What do you have there?” many asked. “Well, come see what you all can make with this.” Through conversation and cooperation, the children began to take turns to add shaving cream to each triangle in the tray. “You have to push the button up top,” Madison explained to Lincoln and Harper. “Can I mix it now?” Braya asked the group. “Mix it,” Harper answered. They began mixing and scooping. “This looks like ice cream,” said Cari. “Oh, we need some sprinkles to make it look like ice cream,” Madison added. They continued working on their “ice cream” flavours. “Mine is unicorn ice cream,” Braya said.
“Who wants to buy some ice cream?” Madison asked. Educator Janeth said, “I would love to buy some from you.” “Okay, that will be $1,000.” “What? That is very expensive ice cream, is there gold in it?” Janeth asked. “Yup, so please pay me $1,000.” Then other “vendors” began to emerge with the pricing. “Mine is $500,” said Braya. “My ice cream only costs one dollar.” Cari said. “They are smaller ones and I can sell them for a dollar.” Janeth sure liked the idea of only paying that price. This activity allowed the children to practice their imaginative thinking and negation skills, while showing their enjoyment through laughs and conversations. The fact that they were stating different prices to have their “ice cream” sold, demonstrated their math concept of quantities and greater/less than.
As we prepare for our fall social and creativity exhibit, we wonder if some of this sensory interest will be demonstrated at our event, perhaps there will be a form of sensory art. We are looking forward to what the children will create and present.
