Why Messy Play is the Best Play

Messy play is a controversial topic in child care centres, but the RECEs that implement it find it incredibly beneficial for young curious minds. Getting messy in a child care setting is great for building children’s senses, body awareness, fine
and gross-motor skills. The fun activities listed below promote exploration, risk taking and self-expression.

4 Great Messy Play Activities:

Bad weather getting you down? Create an indoor beach with swimsuits, fishing, and an ocean made of blue Jello. Build fishing rods out of sticks, string and cans and help children work on their coordination as they get messy trying to hook the ‘catch of the day’.

Grab your raincoats and boots and play explorers. Let them run around and find special stones, leaves, or even wildlife. Don’t be afraid to get in the mud, the more puddle splashes the better!

Arts and crafts have always been a great play-based learning activity for kids. Keep it messy with glue, glitter and paints. Giving them free range to create is a fantastic tool to encourage children’s imaginations.

Cleaning up in the end can even be made into a fun game. Play a round of Simon says to test their concentration. Every time someone makes a mistake they get cleaned off from the hose.

Ensure you kids have designated messy-play clothes to avoid stressing out parents.

Thanks to the staff at Prairie Children’s Centre (Beaumont) in Manitoba for sharing their ideas with TogetherClassrooms.com