We were very busy yesterday exploring soap flake foam. After searching every supermarket I could think of for months, I found soap flakes by accident in the hardware shop at the end of my road, typical (I was actually looking for liquid starch). Trying to be organised for once, I started to get this activity ready first thing in the morning and dissolved the soap flakes in some hot water. Last time, when I had been less prepared, the flakes hadn't dissolved properly and we were left with lumpy foam which wasn't that nice (but maybe thats just me, can't stand liquid with lumps in - yoghurt, lumpy custard/gravy). So being 'super-organised' my soap flakes were dissolved and ready to explore!
However what I didn't realise was that the dissolved soap flakes would set - like a big jelly! (hmmm maybe it would be better to lie and say I knew this was going to happen and it was part of the exploration:)) So the activity didn't start quite as planned, but this didn't put us off!
We found set soap flake foam, didn't quite feel like jelly.
We found we could press our hands into it and leave imprints.....
....and when we broke pieces off it was quite slimy!
We then set about turning our slime into foam by adding water.
We paused in our water adding to observe the changes....
....and found our slime was starting to get bubbly!
So we set about creating more bubbles, swishing and whisking the soap flakes.
Some of us particularly liked swooshing the soap flakes!
We found that the more we whisked the foamier it became.
We experimented with different whisks, oh yes sorry, this wasn't whisking, this was 'bouncing' (according to J as the whisk was like a big spring!)
As we bounced we found we made big bubbles and tried hard to catch them.
Some of us continued to swoosh!
Time for a song accompanied by drums!
By the afternoon, interest in the soap flakes had wained (typical! just as I had got them really bubbly). So to revive interest I thought we could add a bit of colour to our foam.
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We used watered down paints (not too much water or the colours are too pale) and pippettes to drop colours onto the foam.....
and gave it a good stir!
Wow we created some fantastic patterns!
So then we added lots of colours......
....and bounced!
J then decided that she wanted to add paint to the 'bouncer'. It was proving a bit tricky with the pippette so I found her a small paint dabber.
Of course this meant the lids to the paint containers needed to be removed hmmm.....
...which inevitably led to hand painting! But this is the fantastic part. After J had dabbed red paint onto her hand, she paused and said 'what about if we mix the colours', 'hmmm' I replied 'I wonder what would happen?' 'We'll get new colours' J replied confidently. Yay I could sense child initiated learning coming on! So she mixed blue on top of the red and announced 'I made purple!' She then went on to create 'a different blue'...
and then a 'different green' (damn another observation to write up!) J obviously found something quite magical about creating new colours as, as she played she announced 'welcome to my magic show....close your eyes I'm going to do magic!'
But what I found really amazing was the children I look after have developed the ability to read my mind! As I was indoors changing a nappy the thought crossed my mind that this paint / foam exploration was going to take a very long time to clear up. However I needn't have worried, when I went back outside I found the were busy tidying up! Don't you just love them!
Links to EYFS:
CLL: Language for Thinking (Talking about what they are doing / trying to do)
CLL: Handwriting (making marks in the foam with hands / implements)
PD: Using Equipment and Materials (using an assortment of whisks / spoons)
CD: Exploring Media and Materials (exploring the changing states of the soap flakes)
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