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Exploring and discovering different textures
The tamariki in the manuka room love exploring and discovering different textures. Of course, this means we have a lot of messy play activities.
Recently we used corn flour as a textural experience. The best thing about it is that afterwards you get to watch the birds also enjoying something to eat as they swoop down and enjoy the left-over corn flour on the ground.
Messy play allows for the open-ended exploration of materials and their properties. Nga Tamariki are able to use their natural curiosity and engage their senses at the developmental level appropriate for them. All the tamariki use their bodies to explore the different textures, testing out their senses and further make sense of the world around them. Our older toddlers love making patterns in the corn flour, learning about shapes, lines and letters (early literacy).
Through this fun activity they learn foundational cognitive principles as they exercise motor, language, and social skills and of course have fun.