15 messy play ideas for under 2’s

Why not try these 15 great messy play ideas for under 2’s

As messy play offers children many learning opportunities it is important that children are offered this on a regular basis if not daily. As many of us have experienced messy play can get very messy, therefore, some people are reluctant to offer messy play because of the mess it can potentially create. There are many messy play activities that are fun for children but can be contained. But really, messy play should be about letting children get messy and freely explore the activity.

From a learning point, there are some many reasons why messy play can help children’s development. It can help develop their gross and fine motor skills as well as their hand-eye coordination.. During messy play there are many opportunities for children to develop their communication and language skills.  These are just a few skills that children will develop whilst joining in with messy play.

Messy play is a great open ended resource which is ideal for children under 2 as they can take themselves on a journey exploring as they go. As well as it being an open-ended resource there are many other resources that can always be added to messy play to extend the learning further.

Why not try some of these great messy play ideas with your under’s 2.

• Painting on foil- This can either be done on the floor by sticking a roll of foil on the floor or putting sheets of foil on a table. This messy play activity offers children an alternative way of mark marking.

• Moon sand- This messy play is ideal for developing children’s sensory awareness. Younger children will enjoy exploring the texture and they may even begin making marks in the moon sand.

• Making shampoo Gloop- Using corn flour and shampoo add these to a bowl. This activity makes a great messy play activity. Add it to a large tray and watch the children get messy by exploring the texture and consistency.

• Sand play- Why not fill a large tuff spot tray with sand and add various resources for the children to develop their emptying and filling skills. Many people forget that sand play is a messy activity, as they just see it as sand play.

• Roller painting- Using large handled rollers let the children roll these in trays of paint and make marks on the paper.
• Shaving foam and ice cubes- Add these both to a large tuff spot tray and let the children explore this messy play activity.
• Sand foam- Add shaving foam and sand together to create sand foam.
• Edible finger paints- Using natural yoghurt and food colouring mix these together to create edible finger paint.
• Cooked spaghetti and paint. In a large tuff spot tray add piles of cooked spaghetti and squirt different coloured painting next to each pile of spaghetti. Provide the children with different utensils to mix the two resources together.
• Flour paint. This messy play activity involves mixing flour with food colouring and water. It makes a great consistency to paint with. This activity can either be done on a large scale on the floor using trays of paint or it can be a table top activity.

• Shaving foam and food colouring. Squirt shaving foam into a large tray and drizzle different colours of food colouring over the shaving foam. Let the children mix the colours together whilst they get messy.
• Cotton wool painting. Using pegs attach cotton wool to the pegs and put some paint in pots ready for children to dip their cotton wool into.

• Quicksand. Quicksand is definitely worth trying, mix corn flour, water and sand together and it makes a very gooey consistency.
• Using wheeled vehicles to mark make- Sellotape large sheets of paper to the floor and provide trays of different coloured paint. Encourage the children to wheel the vehicles in the paint and push them over the paper creating different marks.
• Water play with bubbles- Fill an empty tray with water and add bubbles, you could also add food colouring to make the water and bubbles a different colour.

Why not share some of your messy play activities with us.

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