Messy Play Mojo
As a teacher, especially of young children, it can be hard to maintain your 'mojo'. So much is expected of you and with so little time, it is so easy to get bogged down and forget why we ever chose this profession in the first place.
I am here to remind you that you chose it because you love it! You love watching those little minds work, you love seeing how they can take three sticks and some sand and use them in a completely novel way, you love the growth you can see each and every day, the new words, new movements, new ideas and ways of expressing themselves that these children continuously surprise us with!
For me, when I feel myself loosing my 'mojo', I fall back on my trusty friend messy play. I love messy play for so many reasons:
Messy play can be adapted for all age groups!;
It's guaranteed to engage at least some of the children for an extended period;
It's totally open ended;
Much like cooking, it can allow the children to explore a wide range of maths and science concepts (weight, volume, changes of state/colour, viscosity, new vocabulary, etc.), and skills (mixing, pouring, scooping, turn taking etc.);
It's simply fun!
Although messy play, in most cases, is completely open ended, I have found the children quite often mimic cooking when engaged in messy play. Therefore, I often offer cups, spoons, scoops, colanders, containers of all shapes, pots, pans and mixing utensils when providing messy play to the children. This can be a great way to encourage practicing cooking skills and vocabulary without having to always offer cooking activities.
Over the next few weeks I will be posting some ideas and recipes for messy play, along with suggestions for keeping it from getting TOO messy ;). For those of you who are already into messy play, hopefully you can find some helpful ideas and suggestions, and for those of you who feel a bit to overwhelmed and bogged down by it all, give messy play a try! The children will love it and you will love watching where they decide to take you!