Playful Investigation
Goop is an interesting sensory experience, a contradiction in look and feel. It is wet, though feels dry when touched. It flows through fingers like water, but sticks to your hands like wet powder. The children scoop up handfuls of goop and let it flow through their fingers or they make a fist and tightly squeeze the goop between their fingers.
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Goop: a fascinating substance that can be both solid and liquid Recipe: cornflour, water and food dye |
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The children’s conversation during Goop play: “it’s icky”; yuck, feels like sticky”; “cold, soft, floury”; “it feels nice. It looks like playdough. Smells like flour”. |
Tipping the trough up and down watching the water flow back and forth turns out to be a highly engaging exploration for some of the children. The trough is resting on a slight tilt, so the water pools at one end. One child tries to push the water up the other end and watches as it always flows back down. Another child suggest: “this end needs to be higher.”
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The teacher asks for ideas of what else might be fun to tip back and forth in the trough. Someone suggests ‘marbles!’ |
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Mrs Larrea thinks about trying this cool idea next week to build on our exploration of tipping the trough: http://www.teachpreschool.org/2011/08/painting-with-balls-of-ice-teens-in-early-childhood-education/ |
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As the children manipulate materials and equipment in their environment they are growing curiosity, building understanding and formulating theories about how the world around them works. |
We really enjoyed the tipping the box – any kind of ball could be used:)