If cleaning up the mess is what has you worried, don't forget that the children can help you clean up. You can also try to limit the mess by setting up the activity in one specific area or by putting down a splash mat. Check out our Sand and Water section for a selection of sand and water tables, sensory tables, sensory bins, and accessories. Here are just a few reasons you should embrace messy play in the classroom: Messy play provides hands-on learning experiences.
Reading about something is a very different thing than actually seeing something in person and having the opportunity to touch and observe it. For example, you can read about rain in books, watch it fall, and measure how much rain has fallen, but you can't really understand what rain feels like until you feel raindrops on your skin or you're jumping in puddles of rainwater.
Children learn through experimentation and discovery and messy play encourages children to explore new textures and manipulate different materials through touch. When children squeeze play dough, scoop up sand or make marks in flour, they are learning to refine their fine motor skills by using the muscles in their fingers, wrists, arms, toes and shoulders to make small movements.
Children also practice coordinating their fine motor skills by combining muscles together when picking up different objects throughout messy play. Gross Motor Skills When children jump in water, throw sand or produce large scale mark making with bigger objects such as paint swatters, they are also enhancing their gross motor skills.
Children use the larger muscles in their arms, legs, feet and body to make bigger movements which support balance, coordination and strength. Depending on what you make the messy play activity, you can also use it to develop language skills and encourage speech. High concentration levels are needed while engaging in messy play, from exploring objects and engaging all of their senses to thinking through their discoveries and trying to communicate them.
This helps children to develop essential learning skills which then enables them to focus and concentrate when learning and practicing practical skills. Next time when you see your child making marks in the sand, they could be developing an early form of writing!
Or perhaps when you see them swap an object with another child, they are learning to share and negotiate with others. Hands-on play also offers many physical benefits, allowing your children to develop an awareness of their body and personal space whilst strengthening their muscle control.
Activities such as pouring, shovelling or drawing in the sand help build strength in the large muscle groups at the top of the arms and it is these muscles that then enable the smaller muscles in the hands and fingers to make precise and controlled movements. In messy play, children can play with tools to develop and practice their fine motor skills as well as their hand-eye coordination, until soon they can hold a pen or eat with a fork!
With messy play, we can teach them that you can make your own entertainment! In an unrestricted play environment where there is no right or wrong way to do things, this is the perfect situation to allow your child to play how they want to. By using their own mind to plan, explore and problem-solve, they are building a self-confidence and self-esteem that will develop them as independent people.
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