Colored Glue Volcano

Because of the site Bath Activities for Kids, along with Growing a Jeweled Rose, I am starting an attempt at embracing "messy play". I have the hardest time allowing the kids to make messes or do anything messy. I buy all of the stuff needed to do these activities, but then I chicken out when it comes to the actual doing.

Crystal and a few others are encouraging "messy play" and even offering easy to clean ways to encourage messy play!!! These are my absolute favorite. All kids like to get messy, so why not let them do it when, where, and how you want them to?

I chose her Erupting Paint Recipe for our first one. My children were bored, and I was desperate! Of course, I am also impatient so we didn't actually use it as paint, but we still had fun and made a contained mess (my favorite)!

So, because of my impatience, I used the following:

*bowls (my daughter's kid chef ones)
*cookie sheets (with high edges around them -- I almost used cake pans)
*glue that I had already colored with marker "guts" (you know those sticks from inside the markers)
*baking soda (from the already opened box that had been sitting in my fridge for no telling how long)
*and apple cider vinegar (cause it was the only vinegar I had on hand)

When my daughter saw me grab these items, she began to get all excited.

"What are we making mom?"
I didn't answer, but I asked her to get 2 cookie sheets.
"Oh, yes! We are making cookies!"
I told her: "No, dear, we aren't making cookies. [LONG DRAMATIC PAUSE HERE] We are going to make a mess."

You should have seen their faces! This was extremely new to them. I have NEVER encouraged them to make a mess. They were also very timid at first, double and triple checking that I was sure they could do this. Poor babies.

I didn't actually make the paint part. I let them mix the glue and baking soda. Then, I poured the vinegar and let them play in it with spoons and plastic Easter eggs. (Of course, I left a warning that if we wanted to more of this we couldn't get it outside of the cookie sheets. -- I really tried to let them be messy, but I couldn't go that far.)

Here are my munchkins playing with their colored glue volcanos!

 

 

 

 

I was surprised at how well they kept their "messes" on the cookie sheets!

It was definitely a contained mess.

 

Yes, my kids dress themselves and no, I don't care if they match or not. ;)

 

 

Let me know which messy play and experiments y'all have tried and how they turned out?