Experimenting with how different materials react when mixed

In the Moane Room we have been making Play-Doh, corn-starch slime, cakes and jelly and talking about what happens to different materials when they are mixed with another.

We talked about how the jelly crystals dissolved when we added hot water and why we thought that happened. When we made the Play-Doh we wondered why it wasn’t all sticking together, so then we experimented with slowly adding water and flour until it all came together nicely. In the sandpit on Tuesday two of the boys asked if they could add water to their buckets of sand. They did and Kendall asked them, “What happened when you added the water?” “It feels sticky,” one of the boys answered. “No, it doesn’t feel sticky, it feels slimy, it is sticky though when you add water, it means you can build with it. It’s kind of like the jelly.” We are going to continue this interest and investigation by building inside with kinetic sand and watching a video on how kinetic sand is made. These activities encourage the children to think critically and to begin hypothesising about why and how things happen. This type of deep thinking will begin building connections that will enable higher order learning in their future education.

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Kendell Lyons Image
Kendell Lyons

Kendell Lyons is an Early Education Teacher at St Nicholas Early Education, Newcastle West. 

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