Sand Slime

Activity Overview

Early childhood is a time in a young person’s life when they learn about the world around them predominantly through their senses. While growing, children retain new information best when they are learning through hands-on experience. Through exposure to different textures, smells, sights, sounds, movements and tastes, the child begins to build a foundation of the world, their everyday life, their body, their wants and needs, their likes and dislikes, and challenges and strengths. Sand Slime is a material they might not find in their everyday life, but it is a sensory tool that promotes understanding through engagement, exploration and manipulation. This activity also serves as an introductory science experiment, as the student will be the one adding the substances and seeing the chemical structure of the material change.

What You Need

• Ingredients for the Sand Slime Recipe

• Sensory Bin Rules

• Airtight container

Steps

1. Follow the Sand Slime Recipe.

2. After the Sand Slime is made, refer to the Sensory Bin Rules with your student.

3. Give the student about 10 minutes to explore the material before engaging with them about their experience. Of course, if they make a comment about their experience before some time has passed feel free to engage! Allowing them to initially explore on their own for some time gives them the space for discovery, meaning-making, and formulation of questions.

4. Use the guiding questions to help support your conversation with your student.

5. This material is best if kept in an airtight container. It will last for a couple of weeks to a month if stored with care.

Guiding Questions

• How does this material feel? Gritty? Soft? Smooth? Bumpy? Silly? Slippery? After they have responded, share what the material feels like to you. In these moments as a guide and teacher for a student, we can model more complex vocabulary that the student may not have heard, and build their early literacy and language skills.

• Does it remind you of anything you have touched or seen before?

• How does this material move?

• How many different ways can you move this material?

• What can you make with this material?

Extensions

• Add loose parts or different tools to broaden their ability to interact with materials in new ways. Remember, you do not want to do too much too fast. One or two tools and a loose part can hold the attention of a student for a couple of days. By rotating materials in and out, we give more opportunities for the students to engage in their learning.