On Saturday, 10 October, Nova Pioneer Northriding welcomed current, prospective and local families to campus for a morning of messy play, exploration and community.
And there was certainly plenty of mess to be made.
Children moved between colourful sensory experiences, from running their hands and scoops through a rainbow of coloured rice to exploring trays filled with corn kernels. Tongs, scoops, containers and sorting activities encouraged little hands to pick up, transfer, pour and experiment along the way.
Water play brought another dimension to the morning. Children explored water-filled tubs, played with floating objects and sea creatures and took part in outdoor games that encouraged them to move, throw and splash. Elsewhere, hands disappeared into wonderfully gooey mixtures as children squeezed, stirred and explored different textures.
There was plenty of colour too. Paint became part of the experience rather than something to keep neatly on a page, with children and grown-ups alike getting involved and, in some cases, becoming the canvas themselves.
While these activities are undoubtedly fun, messy play also gives young children important opportunities to learn.
Scooping and transferring materials can help develop fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. Sorting, filling and experimenting introduce early problem-solving and mathematical thinking. Exploring different textures, temperatures and materials encourages sensory development, while open-ended activities give children the freedom to make choices, test ideas and decide what happens next.
There is no single “correct” outcome in messy play. A container can be filled, emptied and filled again. Materials can be mixed, moved and explored in different ways. That freedom allows children to follow their curiosity and build confidence through discovery.
At Nova Pioneer Northriding, these kinds of experiences form part of an early learning approach influenced by Reggio Emilia and Montessori principles, where hands-on exploration and child-led discovery sit alongside the development of strong foundations for future learning.
But the morning was about more than the activities themselves.
Parents, children, teachers and prospective families shared the spaces and experiences together. Adults joined in the fun, children explored alongside one another and families had time to connect in a relaxed environment outside the usual school-day routine.
For prospective families, it was also an opportunity to explore the campus, meet members of the teaching team and experience the school community firsthand rather than simply hearing about it.
The Messy Play Open Day was a colourful reminder that learning in the early years does not always need to look neat and tidy. Sometimes it looks like rice between your fingers, hands deep in a sensory tub, water splashing across the grass and a little paint ending up somewhere it probably wasn’t intended to.
And sometimes getting messy together is exactly the point.
