Expanding your play with water means moving beyond free play with sprinklers, wading pools, commercial equipment or swimming. Introducing water into children’s play can actually change how they play, explore, and expand new concepts and ideas.

Benefits of Water Play

Research continues to support the introduction of tools to expand play. Both water and light can actually expand learning domains and build developmental skills for young children. There are so many benefits of adding in these elements including improved hand-eye coordination, introducing new concepts of math and science like measuring and hypothesis. It can enhance children’s concentration and focus, and build communication skills and sensory exploration. Adding in additional elements is a great way to meet your learning outcomes and help children prepare for their next step in education.

Expanding your Water Play

Your Theme and Water Play

As you think about expanding your water play, find ways to bring your theme into new activities that include water. For example: if your theme is dinosaurs, you could add in some large rocks as “land” and dinosaurs that live on land and in the water. This will allow children to explore the world of dinosaurs in a whole new way. Perhaps you decided to talk about frozen water. Coloring water with food coloring and then freezing it can bring an entirely new experience to a water table.

Adding Water to Expand Real World Experiences

Water play can include real life too. Something as simple as “baby doll bath time”, washing dishes and clothing can allow children to build their creative skills and use real world activities with water. You can even add water to help build mud pies and cakes.

Water Art Fun

Adding in tempera paint to a spray bottle of water can allow children to spray paint outside. It is washable and easy to remove, but so much fun to do. You can use this same concept with a plexiglass easel, or even on the sidewalk or blacktop area.

Pretend Fun with Water

Of course there is the fun play of a car wash. Whether that car wash means going through with your outdoor riding toys, or just creating a small car wash in a water table or bin.

Depending on the age of your children, the possibilities are endless.

We have an Experience Curriculum Pinterest board of water table ideas that you can use to build your own tool box of water play.

Planning for Water Play

Expanding water play can include anything and everything but the most important thing to remember as you are planning your water play component is these two questions.

How will the children engage with what I want to add to the water play?
What types of things could you engage in and build new concepts and ideas?

The most important part of expanding our thinking about water play is moving from our own thinking into how this play will expand the learning and exploration for children. READ: Keeping Children Safe During Water Play

Kathy Banks, EdD. Early Childhood Education

Kathy Banks, Professional Development Lead for brightwheel, has 36 years of early childhood education experience. She has held various positions, including teacher, director, multi-site director, Head Start director, CCR&R, and QRIS Director. She currently adjuncts at several colleges and universities and continues to support and inspire educators through training and practical strategies. Kathy has her Ed.D. in Early Childhood Education and is a nationally certified Family and Consumer Science Developmental Educator. Her experience and education make her a scholarly expert in child development and the realities and challenges of teaching and directing every day.