Whether you’ve been following along for a long time or a short time, you probably know that I’m a big fan of sensory play! Using a sensory base for our small world play adds another element of fun to our playtime. It allows our little learners to explore so many different skills while they play. Today I’d like to share our frog pond small world tub with you!
I’d stumbled across an interesting product at the supermarket. it was a packed of Slime Baff* which promised to turn your bath water into gooey slime! I’m a lover slime but I’ve not had much success making it myself so I figured it might make a good base for our small world play!
By following the instructions on the back of the packet, I made a small batch of green slime for our frog pond. It actually worked out really well! I added it to a tub with a few little props.
We had some little frog figurines which were in a tube of little insects from Kmart. You can also get frog figurines from Mini Zoo and Amazon*. I added an aquarium rock which I also got from Kmart and some little artificial plants from our local dollar shop. I borrowed the lily pad from my mum which was perfect for our frog pond!
I decided to take this tub outside and thank goodness I did! Lilly played with the frog pond for a little while before removing all of the elements and just playing in the slime. It was SO sticky and stringy but she had the best fun playing with it. I’m not sure what she’d think of it in the bath though! When we were done, I just tipped it into the garden and hosed it to disintegrate the slime.
Now you might be wondering about the benefits of an activity like this. There are so many reasons why sensory play and small world play is so beneficial for our little learners!
This kind of activity provides a really rich environment for the development of oral language skills and vocabulary! As your little learner plays, you can ask questions and encourage your little learner to share their thoughts and feelings. You can also begin to develop content-specific vocabulary and even mathematical vocabulary as they play.
Sensory small worlds allow our little learners to use their senses to explore scientific concepts and knowledge while exploring cause and effect. When Lilly emptied the tub to explore the sensory element (the slime), she was able to explore how the slime stretched and changed shape. This was a really early investigation around how materials have certain properties (like colour, texture, flexibility) which can stay the same or change. Yay for science learning with open-ended materials!
Lilly was about 2.5 years old when we created this sensory tub for her. It was such an enjoyable experience, rich with so many learning opportunities. This is why I’m so passionate about play-based learning! There are opportunities to build a really solid foundation for our little learners all through play.
If you try this activity with your little learner, be sure to tag me over on Instagram using the #LittleLifelongLearners hashtag and tagging me at @littlelifelonglearners – I can’t wait to see what you get up to!
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