The importance of messy play
Messy play: discover why you need this vital tool in your multi sensory toolkit!
With Julie Cowpe-Stephens and Helen Dillon
25 November 2022: 9 am – 12 pm
Messy play allows learners to explore, create, share, engage, investigate and much more: a multi sensory activity that your learners will find irresistible!
Messy play allows the learner to engage in sensory play developing their sensory system, discovering their sensory preferences, making a choice, communicating, becoming more confident: this all supports their mental health and emotional wellbeing.
This practical course will give you the tools and ideas to create various messy play experiences for your learners. Discover clever ways to make messy play accessible to learners you may think won’t engage with messy play experiences!
Helen and Julie bring years of hands-on experience, passion and dedication to everything they do and strive to make a real difference in the lives of children, young adults, parents, carers and practitioners.
9.00 am Admissions and virtual tea/coffee to start the session
9.10 am Welcome & introductions & a warm-up activity
9.15 am Session 1: The importance of messy play
In this session, you will understand:
- the key benefits of messy play
- the stages of play and how messy play supports progression between these stages
- how to create an enabling and calming environment for messy play
- how to use messy play to build trusting relationships enabling learners to communicate feelings/worries and anxieties
- why messy play has a high impact on learning
- how to link your messy play activities to curriculum aims and targets
10.35 am COFFEE BREAK
10.50 am Session 2: Ready, Steady, Cook! A ‘live’ messy play session!
In this session, you will:
see a practical demonstration of lots of ideas of different ‘recipes’ for messy play – with suggested resources/other strategies to maximise your messy play sessions
discover various ‘adaptations’ you can make to your messy play sessions to offer inclusive; innovative; and fresh/new experiences
understand how to provide messy play activities to learners who are tactile defensive or have sensory and physical barriers or both to accessing these experiences
understand how to use messy play to support SEMH for learners who have complex needs
be introduced to ‘thinking outside the box ideas for sensory learners and messy play
Please note: You will need to follow your COSH guidelines and risk assessments for messy play.
11.50 am Questions and Answers
12 pm Thank you and close of the session!
This course will be appropriate for classroom practitioners from special schools and colleges, mainstream settings with specialist SEN provision and early years settings, and working with pupils with severe/complex learning needs and autism, or both.
The following resources will be available in your account for one week after the course date: a digital recording of this event, any resources shared/signposted during the session and a transcript of Zoom chat.
Each place costs £60 plus VAT (£72 in total.)
You can choose to pay by credit card for this booking. You can also request an invoice by confirming your booking by entering a Purchase Order Number on the booking form.
To make a group booking, please select the number of places you wish to book using the drop down menu in the ‘Book event’ section. Select ‘next.’ Complete the requested fields and the name and email addresses of those wishing to attend. If you don’t know the email address for any delegate, you can email this to lois@hirstwood.com later.
‘It has been one of the best courses I have attended recently! Loved the enthusiasm’
‘It was very informative and has given me lots of further avenues to explore.’
‘The trainers are able to engage the listeners in an amusing way. Questions were answered promptly and links or resources are shared immediately.’
‘Practical ideas and a renewed understanding of sensory differences’
‘Learning about creating the learning environment and expanding use of sensory resources’
