1 recipe, 2 ingredients, 10 activities

1 recipe, 2 ingredients, 10 activities

Are you familiar with moon sand? You can make your own and it will keep children busy for hours. As I was searching through the many educatall creative recipes, I saw a fun recipe for moon sand. For the activities suggested here, I removed the sidewalk chalk (used to color the moon sand) from the list of ingredients. You could however, use sidewalk chalk if you wish to add a hint of color to your sand. Here is the link for the original recipe:

For your moon sand, you will need:

• 8 cups of flour
• 1 cup of baby oil

Combine the ingredients until the texture resembles wet sand. You must be able to mold the sand. Add baby oil or flour if necessary to obtain the desired texture. Deposit the moon sand in one or more large plastic bag(s). In the picture, Mathilde is having fun preparing her magic sand. This recipe can, in fact, represent a great activity to do with children if you are brave enough (and don't mind a mess).

Now, for the fun part. How can you use your moon sand? Here are 10 simple ideas that little ones will love.

1. Creativity 101. Children have an abundance of imagination for all kinds of activities. During summer months, your sandbox generally attracts a crowd. A bin filled with moon sand will do the same. Simply fill a large plastic bin with your prepared moon sand. Add shovels, buckets, and trucks. Let children use the items as they wish.
2. Car bin. Little boys (and many girls) will love you for this. Simply deposit different toy cars, trucks, and tractors in your bin and let children play freely. They will turn your bin into a demolition derby or keep busy building an extensive road network.
3. Hunt and seek. Press a variety of objects in the moon sand. Ask children to close their eyes and use their hands to dig out the items by touching and manipulating the contents of the bin.
4. Shapes in the sand. Deposit a thin layer of sand in a cookie sheet. With your group, use a fingertip or a Popsicle stick to draw basic shapes in the sand.
5. What is this? Deposit a thin layer of sand in a cookie sheet. Children take turns drawing a simple object in the sand. The others must guess what it is.
6. Safe moon sand. Do you have very young children in your group? They too can appreciate your moon sand with this simple activity. To avoid little ones eating the sand, place a small quantity of moon sand in a Ziploc bag for each child. Seal the bag with glue or adhesive tape. Let children manipulate the sand-filled bags.
7. The village. Use small cardboard boxes to build garages for toy cars. Set the garages in your moon sand bin. Draw roads in the sand. Provide toy cars. Children will like to drive them along the roads and stop in the different garages (be sure to cut a hole big enough for a toy car to fit inside each box).
8. Sand craft. Sand represents a great material for crafts and giving children the chance to explore a different texture. With white glue, draw shapes on a piece of dark cardboard. Children can sprinkle sand over the shapes. Older children can use paintbrushes to draw basic shapes with the glue before filling them with moon sand.
9. Drawing doubles. Pour a small quantity of sand in a baking sheet. Set several marbles or Popsicle sticks on the table, next to the baking sheet. Use the marbles or Popsicle sticks to represent a basic shape. Ask children to use the marbles or Popsicle sticks to reproduce it.
10. What's missing? Deposit 2 or 3 objects in your sandbox. (more if children find the activity too easy). Ask children to close their eyes. Hide one of the objects in the sand. When you give them the signal, children open their eyes and identify the hidden object before digging it out.

Have fun!

Maude Dubé
Specialized child educator