I love making our own sensory materials for play and Goop is a recipe I have been making for over 20 years now! It's such a budget friendly and fun experience for all ages from babies through to preschoolers…

How do I make Cornflour Goop?

What you need to make Goop

• Cornflour/Cornstarch
• Water
• Large tub or deep sided tray for mixing

What to do next?

• To make goop you simply add just 1 part cornflour and 1 part water and mix together well in a large tub, bucket or tray. You can add more or less water to alter the thickness of the goop – it's fun to experiment, you really can't go wrong which is why I haven't given you any exact measurements!
• Add some edicol dye or food colouring or just leave white is fine…a higher ratio of cornflour to water gives it a mouldable feel and allows little fingers to make balls and pull up large strings before adding more water and making runny again! I also find the that the versions that aren't ‘gluten free' work a lot better for consistency.

As always…remember to provide a bucket of water close by for those children that don't like to have their hands feel messy for to long. It will help boost their confidence to keep coming back to explore.

There are so many ways you can play with goop – why not try a Goopy Bear Hunt or some colour mixing fun!

Another easy yet fun toddler activity we did this week was some contact paper ‘sticking'…..this activity has been very popular and the toddlers enjoyed picking out the items they liked best to add to their sticky paper…rearranged many times. Easiest way I find is to tape some contact (sticky side up of course!) to a window or table and then when the masterpiece is finished you just turn it over and stick to the window or table…..children love to admire their creativity over and over…..great fine motor and eye hand coordination activity…..relatively mess free too which is always nice for a change!

It also turned into a great game for Tara who likes to pick things up and bring them to Mummy…she went around finding all the dropped collage items and brought them back to the table….she loves to put things where they ‘belong'….