We love goop. Do you know what we might love a tad bit more? DRIED goop.
The idea for this activity came a few weeks ago when our goop dried up over night and before adding water back in, Lucy enjoyed scraping, breaking and digging in it to find the objects she had been playing with the previous day.
This time, I dried the goop on purpose after tossing some dinosaur skeletons in. Voila! We had ourselves a dinosaur dig in the morning! And the dried goop turned out so much better than I ever could have imagined!
I used a whole pound of cornstarch and started adding water slowly. I wanted this goop to be thicker than we would normally create because it's purpose was to dry. (our regular recipe for goop can be found here)
Hint: It works even better if you manipulate the goop when it is almost dried to create peaks and valleys in the "landscape." I simply scooped it up and dropped it down on itself so that it was thicker on one end of the sensory table. Then I dribbled a bit more water on top once I had scooped and scraped and let it run down the sides. Once the goop dried, it looked like a perfect desert dig, complete with cracks in the ground. Lucy is having so much fun with it, and the activity had lasted all week and one of the dinosaur skeletons she unearthed, even had a birthday party with all of his skeleton friends before they were buried again! I love toddlers.






Once the dinosaurs were free from the "dirt" there was a washing station right there where she could clean her discoveries. I think she may have liked that part best of all.



I hope you try this activity, it was so much fun. I can't wait to think up other ways to used dried goup for hunting, discovering, and playing. If you try it out be sure to let us know in the comments and/or tag us on IG, we'd love to hear from you!
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