Outdoor mark making with Early Years Resources

Stuck for ideas on what to do with the kids? Why not do some outdoor mark making? You can use anything you like; sponges, bottles, paint brushes! The list is endless! Early Years Resources also have you covered with their outdoor mark making kit!

About EYR

We have previously worked with Early Years Resources on our throwing and catching blog and vlog if you would like to take a look at that one too. Early Years Resources are a fab place to buy items for your children that encourage development, and there are so many items to choose from on their website! I have such a hard time choosing too!

The mark making kit

The mark making kit we received came in it’s own storage box (big brownie points for that one!) with numerous items inside to encourage creativity. The box included:

• Spray bottles
• Sauce bottles
• Large different textured sponges
• Pipettes
• Large roller stamp sponges
• Array of paint brushes, sponges etc.
• Large painters paintbrushes
• Storage box

Photos

It’s not a blog post without some photos right?

How this aids children’s development

Experimentation is key within the early years, and messy play is one of the best ways to enhance the skill of being a mini scientist. Messy play has numerous benefits and even though it can take a while to clean up sometimes, it is totally worth it.

Doing messy play on a big scale opens so many doors for children; just being left to get on with it is also key sometimes. How many times have you been trying to figure something out and had someone in your ear talking, it puts you off doesn’t it. Don’t get me wrong, interaction is helpful for them, but only at the right times. For example, scaffolding the play and using descriptive commentary can aid development to no end; but interfering or drawing their attention from what they are currently doing can hinder the play and experimentation.

An activity like this can aid:

• Sensory development
• Fine and gross motor skills
• Colour recognition
• Language and communication development
• Volume, shape, space, distance; mathematical development

This is just scratching the surface of what is possible through messy play activities. Throw in other toys and games and doing outdoor mark making into the mix and you have so much to learn!

Vlog

What we thought

We love messy play as you know, so being able to do something like this with the boys is fab. I think the kit is great and the fact that it all comes in a storage box is an added bonus! My boys are used to doing activities like this so it comes as second nature. Everything within the box can obviously be cleaned and used again and I have to say that they were very easy to clean. We didn’t use all of the paint in the spray bottles so I have stored them away with the paint and water still inside; as I know that we will be returning to it very soon! The great thing about the kit is that you don’t need to use it all at once like we did, you could spread it across several different activities.

The mark making kit is available to buy through EYR here. You can also follow EYR on their Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

What’s your favourite thing to do outside with the kids?

We were sent this item in order to carry out our review. All opinions and photos are that of my own.