The foundation of our social, emotional regulation, pre-literacy, pre-numeracy and social skills all stem from Messy play! Did you know it? Can you believe it? Ewwey, Gooey goodness beneath our fingers, running down into our elbows is an essential piece to a solid development in our children. Not only is it necessary but it is how we begin to shape our young students minds to be cognitively ambitious in all the creative abstracts of their learning and living.

Let’s look at the How’s of Messy Play. What is it?

Messy play can be as simple as taking your class out to the sandbox or a neighbouring park. Writing their letters with their fingers in the sand. Making a mud pie with different measuring cups or dipping their fingers into paint and smearing it across the page. The latest and greatest craze is the Tuff Tray. It has quickly became a fan favourite in my room. So many fun ideas to be found on the world of Pinterest!

I have made the observation that somewhere along the way the importance of this type of play has been lost. Which as an educator, a parent and an artist makes me sad. There is nothing better than kids accessing those sensory feelings and applying them to real life situations.

What better questions can we ask to get students thinking about self-autonomy then how does that feel between your fingers? What does it remind you of when you touch that mud, that paint, that goop, that warm water? Smell this cinnamon, orange, lemon balm should we put it in our water today? What smell do you like the best? It slows time down, connects the mind and body and allows our students to truly be in the moment and in charge of their own decisions, likes, dis-likes, fears, and joy.

How does Messy Play help with Emotional Self- Regulation?

Children learn how to control their own emotions only after they initially discover and can name them. Activities such as messy play allows for those critical questions to be discovered, observed, felt and named in our students. Some students when rarely given the chance to engage in this type of play have an immediate reaction of over excitement or lack of regulation. This may present as things like: dumping the water over their heads, over someone else’s head (opp’s) or throwing it up in the air with reckless abandon.

This can have one of two reactions for classroom teachers an “Oh heck no, we aren’t doing that again put it all away” OR that child needs more exposure let’s do it WAY more often. The teachers that choose that later often see great things occur over time. More engagement in independent play, self soothing, greater inquiry based learning to name just a few but especially engagement and growth in their students. Don’t get me wrong it’s hard to move past the panic stage I go into it myself from time to time but I bite my inner cheek and hop along for the ride. I know in the end the pay off is more than worth the pay out.

Let’s Talk about Pre-Literacy Connections in Messy Play.

Before our students can make those perfectly printed little alphabet letters there is a rather large process that is happening in their brain. Mark making in connection to sensory activities not only begins and fully engages our students in this process. It is the fundamental stages to helping them accomplish what we want them to be doing in the long run. In rooms where we are seeing students struggling to great lengths to avoid the academics (think classroom evacuations). We must to take a big step back and recognize the need for the sensory seeking activities first. With enough exposure to the sensory the pencil, self-regulation and of course the confidence will follow.

This is beginning to become a hot topic again in education where we look at what is called multimodal instruction. This is where a number of our senses are being engaged during play to ignite our muscle memory and bringing joy back into the learning. It is far more productive for children and you will see your students achieve far greater results when this approach is used. For the record, this isn’t just for Kinder benefits can be found across the ages and stages. It opens and sparks the minds of our students to achieving levels far greater than sitting in our seats all day. Our children need movement, engagement, sensory experiences and mental challenges to be successful independent learners (so do the adults).

What was that about Pre-Numeracy Skills?

Yep, that too. Measurement, counting, sorting, patterns you name it Messy play has it. Again in fun, engaging, multimodal exposures that make children crave coming back to school the next day. The opportunities are endless and the results are worth it. There is no greater gift than allowing our students to have these opportunities. While I have listed the academic benefits the list of social is also high along side of it. Opportunities for students to practice oral language, sharing, listening skills. So if I could give you my best advice here, bite your inner cheek too just a little and spread out these opportunities daily. The kids will thank you, your room will be happier, your students will be engaged and you will be teaching them priceless life skills that will last forever.

With Love, C.

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