Fun with Foam!

At Buckle My Shoe, our little ones love using their senses to learn more about different materials in the exciting world around them. We love to provide a variety of sensory rich experiences for them, as we know that children are sensory learners. With the changing weather, we have been moving these sensory experiences indoors and today we decided to have some fun with foam! 😍

Eager to get their little hands right in, our little ones found a seat at the table and waited with so much anticipation. As one of our wonderful kaiako squirted a blob of foam in front of them, little hands crept forward. Straight away, some of our learners noticed the smell of the foam and began describing what it smelt like.

Others were just eager to swirl and spread the foam onto the surface of the table, watching closely to see how this material felt and moved. Opening and closing their hands they also discovered how the foam felt between their fingers.

Having fun with foam has many benefits for children especially in terms of their fine motor skill and coordination. Many of our learners used their fingers to create patterns in the foam and to make peaks. Some of them even wrote their names in the foam. 😊

To extend on this experience and to add in another dimension, we added different coloured blobs of paint onto the table. Our learners took the lead and requested their favourite colours. As the paint hit the table, little fingers began mixing the paint with the foam – eager to see what would happen. “Mine is green now!”, one child said while another exclaimed, “I’ve got purple!”

Not only could patterns be seen more clearly, but our learners experimented with colour-mixing around the table. Their expressions of concentration and focus were amazing to see and there was so much enjoyment in the air!

The NZ Early Childhood Curriculum Te Whariki mentions as part of it’s Exploration goal, that children should experience environments that encourage playing, imagining, inventing and experimenting. As foam is such a versatile and malleable material, our little ones were able to do all these things according to their individual intentions and interests. 😊

As exploration with the foam continued, our little ones began making comparisons of foam with things they were familiar with such as snow, soap and even clouds. This was really interesting to hear as it gave an insight into how our little ones relate and see things. For example, clouds are fluffy and so is the foam, so therefore they are similar.

Fun with foam is an easy and inexpensive sensory experience that can be done even at home. And an added benefit is that it leaves the surface clean and smelling so fresh! 😊 

To extend on this, we plan to repeat this experience again, but hide objects in the foam for our little learners to find, explore and describe to others. This will add complexity and encourage communication skill development with our little ones - a great way to enhance such a hands-on and fun sensory experience! 💖