We've done fluorescent water play with flowers and exploring color theories, now we did it with pumpkins! To set this invitation we provided ladles, whisks, pots, bowls, buckets, a variety of clear containers, and a whole bunch of pumpkins/gourds from Smith Family Farm. Water was mixed with Fluorescent BioColor® and set up in the outdoor Mud Kitchen. The children were invited to create pumpkin soup!
Inviting a child to create any type of pretend soup encourages so many levels of learning while they create. When a child is adding, scooping, pouring, transferring and stirring ingredients it fosters creativity and enables children to experiment with science and math concepts. Children begin to understand and investigate with ideas such as more/less, same/different, many/few, empty/full, before/after, greater than/less than. Children also learn physics principles such as the effects of force (increasing the waterflow through increased force); effects of gravity (water runs downhill) etc.
The social learnings from creating soup together include collaboration, concentration, turn taking, problem solving, perseverance, self-regulation, and more. Children also gain physical learning through precision in pouring and eye-hand coordination. Sensory play through exploring the colored water and foraged loose parts with their senses is engaging and helps encourage exploration of science, language, color theory, and natural materials.
Comentarios