Messy play is exactly what it says it is; its play that gets very messy and is great fun! However, there are numerous benefits to messy play apart from the elements of fun it provides!
Messy play is great for developing hand-eye co-ordination and motor skills. Messy play uses hands and fingers; it helps to develop children early dexterity skills and strengthen hands, fingers, arms and shoulders – thus strengthening muscles which are essential for a child’s development into a writer in the future. Messy play helps young children to develop their spatial awareness, which in term develop their gross motor skills and fine motor skills. As children grow older and develop their messy play this also helps to develop their hand to eye coordination skills with placing and moving objects.
As messy play is an activity that relies on adult interaction it’s a great opportunity to support young children with language development and new vocabulary. It provides opportunities to explore materials and descriptive language – is an item soft, rough, scratchy, small, large, cold, hot. Messy play allows children to ask and answer questions and allows adults time to model new language in a relaxed environment.
Messy play is a wonderful way to introduce imaginative and symbolic play – the spaghetti is the seaweed, the playdough can be moulded to make creatures and characters, and sand and water can be used for unlimited opportunities and purposes. Through this play children have opportunities to develop and use more complex vocabulary and language such as descriptive adjectives.
What else can be developed through messy play?
Messy play allows children to develop confidence and creativity – it gives very young children the springboard to experiment, allowing them opportunities to explore and see how things work and change. Through this they are introduced to very early science skills such as exploring cause and effect as well as changes and materials. As children get older messy play can still play a vital role in their learning, allowing them to continue to develop scientific and problem-solving skills; they can learn about classification and sorting, matching skills and many basic mathematical skills.
There are many social and emotional benefits to messy play for children of all ages. For young children it allows social skills to develop; for older children it can also be a wonderful individual activity or a team activity. Messy play can be a project children can work on together – giving them the opportunities to share ideas, take turn talking and expressing their own opinions. It is also a continued opportunity for children to develop their spatial awareness and further body awareness.
It's important that as parents or practitioners we remember that for some children messy play can heighten anxiety but for others it can be a time of calm – an opportunity to relax and calm themselves through hands on play and sensory stimulation.
So here are some super simple messy play ideas for all ages and stages!
Babies and toddlers:
Let your baby get fully involved – if you have a mat or tray that you can put messy play in they can be in a nappy and get messy! For younger children its best if the play is something that is edible so it’s safe if they get fully covered! Here are some of our favourite ideas.
Whipped cream – everyone is fascinated by this – make some cream mountains in a tray – let them splat them, squash and smear – you can explore mark making, patterns and shapes. You can roll cars through the cream to make tracks and look at marks and tracks. You could add sprinkles or food colouring to add colours and create patterns.
Jelly play – make different coloured jellies and let your child explore – talk about the texture and colours. This is great for motor development as they squash and squeeze it! You could hide objects and scoop them out with a spoon or dig them out with their hands.
Cooked spaghetti –
an activity that is guaranteed to offer hours of fun! Colour it, cut it to different sizes and add toys to it! For older children you can add tools such as knives, spoons, pans, tweezers and find different ways to transport it. Adding measuring tools allows older children to explore early maths skills within a messy play context too!
Edible sand – a fans favourite – blend up cheerio’s or a similar cereal until a sand consistency- add to a large tray your toddler can sit in and let them explore! Add pots, scoops, sieves and let them play – it doesn’t matter if they eat it either!
Edible paint – quite simply mix natural yogurt with food colouring and paint away – this is great for body painting, letting toddlers use their hands to paint – making patterns, exploring colours and shapes. Let your mini-Picasso explore and let their imagination lead the way – you can step in to help them too!
Toddlers and older children:
As children become more in control of their movements and behaviour there is a wealth of messy play ideas that you can introduce! Messy play is fun for all ages and can involve sand and water play and so much more; adding small world to sand, water and messy play allows children to let their imagination grow and flourish, it also allows them to explore language in an engaging environment.
So, here are some ideas for older toddlers and children.
Goop – mix cornflour with water until a runny paste – add to a tray and let children mark make – a great texture play tray that allows children to explore, its an amazing consistency that has both a liquid and a solid texture all at once! Add food colouring to add excitement, its great as a water substitute when exploring under the sea too!
Chocolate mud – a great messy play for when you are exploring the garden! Simply mix cornflour, flour and cocoa powder with water and see an instant edible mud appear – a super base for exploring minibeasts and garden play – small tools can be added to allow children to mark make and move materials around too.
Rice play – add uncooked rice to a Ziplock bag with food colouring, shake up thoroughly and then leave out to dry – a great messy play ideas that can be used for a multitude of purposes! Great for exploring capacity with different sized pots and jars and wonderful as a background for small world play too! You can use it for pattern making and add tools for sorting and moving.
Shaving foam – similar to whipped cream shaving foam is great for mark making – children can practise making marks.
Freezing objects or animals in ice (with food colouring for added effect) is a fun summer activity – can they use tools to crack the ice and free the objects? What happens when the colours from the ice cubes mix together? This allows children experiment with colours and also explore the use of tools.
Bubbles are a fun way to explore and allows children to develop a range of skills both with small and large bubbles and equipment.
We could go on, the list is endless – in winter mud and snow are perfect natural messy play areas and in summer you have gardens, parks, sticks for creating and of course the beach! Classic creative messy play should not be forgotten either – cutting, sticking, box play and junk modelling all help children to develop creativity, explore language and practise using tools.
In summary, messy play can be as messy as you make it; but its purpose remains – it allows children to explore and develop their creativity, problem solve, develop their use of tools, explore and learning new language, develop artistic representation and most importantly it allows them to have fun while learning!
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