Messy Play Monday - Jelly

We mixed up some different coloured pots of Jelly and left them over night to set. In the morning we tipped these out into our white messy tray (the white one does a great job of making everything look appealing and colourful!)

Also in the tray were other messy play substances with slightly different textures including some of our favourite 15p hair gel.

Lots of our children are really into sea creatures so to add extra interest we used the messy play as a base for some small world play and added the sea creatures.

Having observed the children it was clear that a lot of their play with the sea creatures involved the age old theme of the baddies chasing the goodies. Needless to say this continued and true to form the game involved the Orca eating this seal!

After the initial excitement had died down and there were fewer children at the table I was able to stand nearby and listen in as one of my girls made up a very elaborate storyline about the sea creatures, it remains one of my favourite things to pretend I am busy doing something nearby and really tune in to what they are saying and doing when playing alone or with friends. Had I charged in and imposed myself on this game it may very well have limited what she was doing but because I stepped back and took an observers role I was able to gain a lot of insight about her imaginative play and language skills.