I’ve been trying to think of new things to use for Messy play sessions, I’ve seen so many great ideas from the Messy Play for Matilda Mae linky which I have been joining in but just haven’t had the chance to get bits to use. But when I received a package with polystyrene bits in at the beginning of the week it gave me an idea for a messy play session.
So on Thursday morning I got out the tuff spot and emptied the polystyrene onto it. I then got out a few different cars and Lego animals to use as well. As usual Rowan was keen to get stuck in and quickly spread the polystyrene out across the tuff spot. Erin sat back and watched curiously as her brother moved the polystyrene around.
Rowan decided that the best way to play was to take his shoes off and sit in the tuff spot. Picking up one of the cars I had put in the tuff spot too he started driving the car through the polystyrene. He then made mounds with the polystyrene and drove the cars through them. Erin found this particularly entertaining and giggled every time a mound was knocked apart.
Erin spent some time exploring the texture of the polystyrene, squashing it in her hands and picking it up, then putting it down before she felt comfortable with joining her brother in the tuff spot. Once in the tuff spot she picked up a plastic helicopter and joined in with Rowan’s game of knocking down mounds of polystyrene.
I then asked the question “can you cover the cars with polystyrene?” to see how Rowan interpreted it. After thinking for a few minutes Rowan cleared a space in front of him, then placed his car down. He then gathered up as much of the polystyrene as he could and pushed it on top of the car until it couldn’t be seen anymore. He repeated the process with a couple of the Lego animals. Then with a cheeky grin Rowan had an idea! he started to try and cover himself with the polystyrene. At first he covered his feet with it, then he decided to lay down in the tuff spot and asked me and the child I was looking after that day to cover him. Then we covered the child I was looking after too. Both boys found this great fun and said the polystyrene ticked them.
I think this play session proved that something that you would usually throw out can be used to create fun and laughter too, all you need is a little imagination.
Oh we’ve had great funwith ‘wiggles’ too! Did you save them? We used shaving foam and water with ours and the kids were delighted to see them shrink!
xx