Hello, my fellow educators. Today, I am sharing a sensory play exploration of adding flowers to slime. For this invitation, I added some slime to a container, and in dialogue with one of my four-year-olds, we wondered what we could add to the slime. She asked for flowers, so we gathered some from our garden and added it to the slime. It is the end of blooming season here in Midwest Illinois, so the flowers from the garden are up for grabs. This time of year, I create a yes environment for the garden; they can pick flowers and cut leaves for their mud kitchen. However, we leave some for the migratory monarch butterflies, pollinators, and winter birds.
This activity was done outdoors but can be achieved indoors as well. If you don’t have fresh flowers, dried flowers can be substituted.
Some children will enjoy the activity, while others may not like the feeling of sticky, icky, gooey slime on their hands and between their fingers. We had one child who kept wiping off the slime from her hands. The joy of an invitation is that we allow children to freely participate if they want; we honor that process.
Manipulating slime can be enjoyable to those sensory children who want to pull, stretch, squeeze, and feel the texture between their fingers or wrap around their hands, as one of my children did. She played with the slime for more than thirty minutes nonstop.
Did you know slime can be therapeutic for some children with developmental challenges and emotional, cognitive, and physical disabilities?
The next time you think of using slime in your classroom, why not add flowers?
Until next time – I am Miss Sue, your educator walking in the trenches with you, yet making our environment joyful for the future generation. Xoxo Miss Sue
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