I LOVE water play! It’s messy, it’s noisy, the teacher will get drenched, but to me, that just means it’s going well!!
I think a lot of us shy away from water and use the
‘It’s too cold yet’ excuse, but honestly, water can fit into any theme, at any
time of the year.
 |
| "Let them play with water, she said! It'll be fine, she said!" |
The best thing to do is stop making those
excuses, you don’t need a wealth of resources to do water play!
For example:
*If you don’t have a water tray, why not use an old
baby bath? Or even just a plastic box?
*If you don’t have plastic aprons, bin bags will
do!
*Don’t have buckets and watering cans? Who needs
them?! Empty plastic bottles, tubes and tubs work just as well, if not better!
Convinced yet?
Now experiment!
Water play doesn’t have to be all about pouring and
filling and emptying! Make it interesting, give the children a task.
These are some ideas I LOVE:
(Did I mention yet that I love water play?
#OverExcitedMuch)
1. Spray
tops :
Get
your hands on some *clean* bottle spray tops (or recycled – saves a lot of
sterilising!) The children will have to learn about pumping the water and
pointing the nozzle! They just love the idea of cleaning toys / boats or even
having races by squirting the water at objects! Endless fun.
2. Fine
Motor Fun :
Collect
plastic bottle caps. Fill your water tub with lots of them and give each child
at the water station a pair of those lovely plastic tweezers! While racing to
pick up as many bottle caps as possible they are having a real
fine-motor-finger-workout!
3. Magnets
:
Enter
Science! Make use of that jar of coins we all have! Tip it into your sandpit
and get the children to fish them out with your magnets (the waterproof
ones!!). The opportunities with this activity are endless – depending on what
class you have! Counting, adding, sorting etc.
4. Laundrette
:
Wash
some baby clothes for the dolls! Squeeze, rinse, spin, hang on the line. It’s a
lovely activity. Also, don’t forget to spend a day or two washing the
dolls…they have to learn about the body parts sometime!
5. Ping
Pong Phonics :
Dealz sells packets of ping pong balls for
next to nothing! Write sounds / sight words on ping pong balls and have the
children fish them out of the water tank with nets or ladles.
6. Ice
Ice Baby :
Freeze some objects from the
classroom; anything will do, magnetic letters, animals, counters etc. This
activity speaks for itself. Let the children find ways to melt the ice using
the water! It’s amazing how much enjoyment they take from a few ice cubes! If
you’re feeling extra enthusiastic, make slabs of ice, throw in your polar bears
and penguins and hey presto, it’s a polar region!
7. Spice
it up :
Add glitter, bubbles, leaves or even a few drops of
food colouring to your water! The smallest change makes such a different and
increases excitement levels even more!
I could be here all night if I keep going, I’ll
keep some ideas for another post soon!
I cannot express how wonderful www.recreate.ie is
for recycled materials, and the things I picked up for water play are super!
I’ll post some pictures of them soon!
My advice:
*Embrace the mess, trust me, water play is worth it for the
enjoyment the children get out of it – what we often don’t realise, is that
many children don’t have baths in their homes anymore and are missing out on a
whole lot of splashing and water fun!! It’s something worth thinking about!*
Over & out!
Clara
#littlemissteacherblog
#WaterPlay
#Aistear
#SharingisCaring
#Lovewhatyoudo
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