Educational water activities for kids [Try these at home]
Summer is all about play, fun, exploration, and as much time outdoors as possible. And water activities for kids are the best idea!
There are so many fun things to do and so many ways to play, but staying cool and hydrated is essential. Various water activities are the perfect way to cool off amid a heatwave and keep kids entertained and active.Water activities for kids help develop motor skills and stimulate the imagination. Water activities are so loved by kids.
We've put together a list of some of the most popular water activities for kids. They're not complcated, don't require special gear, and most importantly, they're completely safe to try.
Contents:
- What are some fun water activities for kids
- How to make water play interesting and part of the learning journey
- How water activities contribute to the kids' physical and mental development
What are some fun water activities for kids to try at home?
- Water transfer. A very important activity among young children that helps develop hand-eye coordination and improve fine motor skills. Give young children a full and an empty bowl of water and different utensils, e.g. spoon, ladle, glass, etc. with which they can transfer water from one container to another. Tell them about the quantities transferred according to the utensils used, about the water lost "on the way".
- Water balloons. A fun way to cool the little ones down. As well as the classic water balloon fight, you can also start a fun game: throw a water balloon from one to another and whoever misses catching it 3 times is out of the game.
- Water gun. How to have a fun water activity without a pool? The classic water gun game will never go out of fashion. But you can come up with an update: put in some targets, such as bowling pins or empty water bottles, and you've created a fun activity and a great hand-eye coordination exercise at the same time.
- Watering flowers. Teach children about responsibility. Whether you live in the backyard of the apartment building, caring for a plant or tree is a relaxing activity that develops new skills: teamwork, healthy eating, love of nature. Talk about plants, their names, what they need to survive, and how they should be cared for.
- Water slide on grass. Spread a long cloth or slippery material on the grass. Wet the material thoroughly with a hose or buckets full of water and get the fun started! Don't forget your camera to capture your little ones' funniest and cutest smiles.
- Fish for objects in the water. Put all sorts of objects in a container of water and give the children a site, big tweezers, spoons to fish with, using just one hand. Make the game even more exciting and use an hourglass or time the time they have to collect as many objects as possible.
- Pour the water away. For this game you need cups and water. Line the children up in a single row and give each of them a paper/plastic cup. The first child will have the cup full of water and will have to pour it over their head, standing back and trying to fill the cup of the child behind them. As fun as this is, it is also useful in developing teamwork skills.
- Water balloon race. We go back to the water balloons, add some more spoons and have a fun and cool race for the little ones. The aim of the game is for the little ones to get the water balloon from the spoon to the finish line without dropping it. The spoon should be held with one hand and the other hand behind the back so that the temptation to use both hands is minimised.
- Water painting on asphalt. Whether you use water pistols or water bottles with holes in the cap, painting on asphalt can keep children busy for quite a long time. It can also be a great exercise for teaching numbers or letters without making the activity feel like a chore.
- Experiments. Water is a wonderful resource for experimenting and learning about the environment. In a bowl of water, put objects made of different materials: plastic, wood, metal, etc. Observe together what happens to them and tell why some sink and others float. Another interesting experiment for older children is a bag full of pierced water that does not flow. You need a clear plastic bag, a zipped one is ideal, lots of sharp pencils and water. Let your little ones sharpen the pencils carefully, stimulating their concentration and fine motor skills. Then fill the bag with water and insert one pencil at a time, puncturing the bag. Unbelievable, but the water won't run!
Read also:
How to prevent summer learning loss.
Useful activities & tools
How to make water play interesting and part of the learning process, on Kinderpedia?
Some of these water activities are excellent to be used by parents in their endeavours to prevent summer learning loss and keep children engaged in their learning process.
To keep an account of all the progress during the summer break, Kinderpedia fully supports children and parents in sharing experiences and learnings via the app’s communication and collaboration features.
On Kinderpedia, educators can provide students with a variety of interactive and engaging resources that keeps them busy during their summer holiday. On the other hand, it keeps parents connected and engaged in their children’s education.
Tasks can be journaling about a day out at the pool, taking notes in predefined templates on the water experiments mentioned above, taking photos and sharing them via the media module, and many more. All of these can be shared by children in their own Kinderpedia app, and can easily turn into a personal portfolio for the summer vacation.
Additionally, parents can organise meet-ups (events) for groups of kids to enjoy water activities together and, again, share all the fun with the rest of the colleagues in their classroom group, in the Kinderpedia app.
To make things more engaging, teachers can regularly share with the entire class small breakthroughs and tagged pictures that describe the kids’ summer experiences and learnings.
If anything, this kind of collaboration during the summer break isn’t meant to widen the gap between children coming from various backgrounds, but to encourage them to take an active role in their own learning and keep parents in the loop with their progress.
How water activities contribute to the kids' harmonious physical and mental development
Besides the fun part, water activities for kids contribute to the children's educational development, along with improving their physical condition.
Kids improve their gross motor skills, coordination, and physical fitness by lifting, pouring, carrying, running, and splashing, while actions such as squeezing, help to develop children's small hand muscles. It also helps children develop hand-eye coordination and helps teach math and science concepts. It improves social skills and encourages cooperation.
Some of the things little ones can learn through water activities include:
- Learning physical principles and phenomena - playing with water is a wonderful opportunity for children to observe and understand that water freezes or can have different temperatures, adults can tell them about the circuit of water in nature
- The idea of cause and effect - children understand that every action causes a certain effect. For example, one object may float in water while another sinks
- Developing creativity - playing with water is a great opportunity to develop children's imagination. A pot full of water can become an endless sea on which ships and boats float, a sponge and a pot of foam can become a car wash, etc.
- Water is a generator of happiness and joy among young children. It trains them to have fun, and at the same time relaxes them.
Water activities for kids - and the great outdoors in general - stimulate creativity, learning and at the same time relax and entertain everyone, children and adults alike. So, holidays don't have to mean hours lost in front of the TV or computer. Take advantage of the summer days to spend quality time with your children, have fun, laugh heartily and create unforgettable memories together.
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