by Renee Houser | Everyday Life Learning

First Hand Experiences: Opportunities for Sensory, Vocabulary, and Fun Learning!

At our home we love to make things and we look forward to the process of making things. We also love to spend as much time as possible outside. So when the weather was warm enough to venture outside my daughter RK wanted to take her watercolor paints outside. We enjoyed painting the driveway.

It quickly turned into using our fingers to fully experience the paint…and eventually into body painting!

So much of learning is through our sensory experiences.

All of this painting inspired us to go on a mission to try to make our own finger paint. We hope you try it, too! It’s a super fun project and filled with so many opportunities for learning.

My goal in this (and all) experiences is to see it as an opportunity to involve RK as much as possible. These experiences are for her growth and learning (with an added bonus of quality time together). It’s important to mention this because my goal is to set up RK to be the main decision maker. The experience itself is the learning and as the adult my work is to think through how to set it up to provoke learning throughout the entire experience.

When you are truly the decision maker you learn to become independent.

The decisions she makes may (or may not) be the same decisions I would make as an older human but the only way to gain experience is to truly be in it. For example, if I want RK to be an independent decision maker but I decide on all the measuring tools then she’s learning that I make the decisions and she is learning to be dependent on me. If instead we together go to the cabinet where all the measuring devices are kept and we discuss what we need and then RK selects the measuring devices and she selects the mixing bowl and she selects the stirring utensil (you get the idea) she’s the one making the decisions and learning to be independent in a “safe space” where I’ve provoked the decision making process.

Today we worked on being an independent decision maker through the first hand experience of making homemade finger paint. As adults we can provoke these strategic decision-making opportunities throughout our day. How are we engaging with the children in our lives in ways that provoke initiation? Independence? Decision making? Curiosity?

We hope you decide to give creating home-made finger paint a try. It’s an experience you can share together to think through language that provokes curiosity and set up the children in your life to experience the joy in learning and trying something new!

First, we gathered our ingredients and materials. RK looked through the various measuring cups and spoons and selected the ones we would use. I read the measurements out loud while she searched for the tool that matched. Our discussion went something like this, “The recipe calls for 2 cups of water. Which measuring cup should we use for that?”

Next, she combined all the ingredients together.

Language that Sets Up Dependence vs. Language that Provokes Independence

I’m also on the lookout for ways to infuse opportunities to tuck in vocabulary experiences. I try to make it a very casual part of the conversation and avoid “quizzing” at all costs. Quizzing often sets up children to feel as though they are “right or wrong” instead of fostering an inquisitive stance of figuring things out. Our goal is to cultivate curiosity around words so that students enjoy the process of studying them and figuring them out to use their voice in communicating ideas and also to eventually use them to write ideas of their own and to read the ideas of others.

Quizzing Language vs. Inquisitive Language

We combined all the ingredients and observed a milky liquid.

Next, we heated the mixture and had a great discussion about how the texture shifted from a liquid to a gel-like substance.

We took the entire mixture and divided it into equal parts in 3 bowls. You guessed it – working in some authentic mathematical thinking concepts.

RK selected the colors she wanted for her paints and mixed a few drops into each bowl of paint.

We noticed the various gradients of color which prompted a great discussion on shading of colors based on how many drops of color source we added.

The final product – our home-made finger paint!

We decided to store our finger paints in glass mason jars. We were hoping the lids would help keep the paints from drying out if we didn’t use them all first! (Spoiler alert: We did!) We only had 3 jars which set us up to make some tough decisions in selecting our colors. We had a quick discussion on primary colors and are now looking forward to mixing these to explore a rainbow of possibilities!

Ready to make your own home-made finger paint?

We used the finger paint recipe from Easie Peasie Co. We hope you try making your own finger paint, too! It’s super fun and filled with so many opportunities for learning.

We made it even easier for you!

Download the recipe flyer and follow along.

Download the Finger Paint Recipe

Your turn!

We’d love to see what finger paint colors you make and the works of art you create so hashtag them #RWTReneeFingerPaint and share.

We’d be happy to feature your creations on our Facebook page @ReadWriteThinkwithRenee or our Instagram account @ReadWriteThinkRenee so be sure to tag us!