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Flour, flour, flour
Recently the Explorers have been investigating Messy and Sensory play to the extreme, with a different activity on offer each day. On this occasion they explored their senses with Flour.
The flour play was set up inside as it was raining outside, and the weather wasn't going to stop the Explorers from Discovering. In a big trough in the middle of the lino the children began to explore with flour. At first, there were just a few scoops of flour in the trough, the children all tentatively touched the flour and looked at the mess on their hands they then looked to their teachers for some reassurance that it was ok to have this mess inside. The teachers gently encouraged them to grab handfuls of the flour and sift it through their fingers. As the children began to explore handfuls of flour, the teachers then began to add more of it to the trough as well as a few sprinkles of glitter. The Tamariki were then offered a few containers to tip and pour the flour with.
After gentle persuasion and reassurance that it was ok to make some mess inside, the Tamariki were away. There was flour being thrown in the air. Flour being rubbed over bodies like it was sunblock and even some transportation of the flour, a couple of the children enjoyed transporting the flour to different areas of the room and trying to cover toys with it exploring the enveloping Schema.
The Tamariki were busy for a long period of time with the flour, eventually exploring the enveloping schema further, the children (with supervision) hopped into the trough and tried to cover their bodies in the flour, they looked like little white ghosts. With lunchtime nearing and the white snow affect in the classroom it was decided that it was time to pack up the flour, the Tamariki were sad to see the flour being packed away until the vacuum cleaner came out, this was a nice distraction and transition as they all had a turn at pushing the vacuum cleaner around the floor.
The tamariki all had a wonderful experience with flour, this freedom to explore through their play also fostered learning opportunities as the children explored problem solving, used both their gross and fine motor skills, built up their courage and confidence and further extended their curiosity. During all this fun the children also began to understand some mathematical and scientific concepts for example the weight of the flour when they held it in their hand as opposed to the weight of the flour when they held it in a container.
Such a fantastic time was had by all with the flour, this is an activity that will certainly be explored again. Perhaps the flour could be explored further outdoors with some water added to it for the children to see the reaction between the water and the flour.
A great learning opportunity had by all.