Shaving cream or rain cloud

This messy fun was all about using your imagination. I brought out the materials and placed them on the table. I started to mix up water and food dye. I made a big pile of shaving cream in a jar full of water. I laid out eye droppers. The questions began to roll in. The inquiry was presenting itself. The discovery was well under way. So this experiment became theirs, child lead, not teacher directed. And some of the things they discovered...

I have to squeeze this to make it drink the colour and then squish it into the whip cream.
Its soap right,we cant ean't eat it.
Where is the colour going?

Look at the soap, its all colourful, like a rainbow.
I got soap in the little cup. It came off my eye dropper.
I cant reach, someone pass it to me.
The colours are mixing!
Ahhh its getting on the table, its falling off the top.

It looks like a cloud!
The colours are leaking into the water.
(ah ha moment) Its like rain!
The cloud is full, the colours are falling out.

The water in the jar looks like a storm.
Can we touch it now?



This is a great example of the children selecting material to carry out their own explorations.
These are kinds of inquiry that promote independent thinking, process not product and critical thinking for problem solving.