Water Play

Without a regular water supply the childrens’ free play with water has been limited to  whatever water they can find in the yard after (or during) a rainfall.

Every summer we have at least one ‘Water Day’ where there are various water stations set up but these are somewhat structured water activities.  It has been one of my goals to incorporate water as a permanent feature of the loose parts area and by moving the rain barrel, phase one has finally been completed;

 

Water has become the ultimate ‘loose part’ and the children have been busy experimenting with it.  There was the familiar ‘soup’ which sometimes becames a swimming pool;

 

My son tried an experiment with sound and water;

 

One of the children expanded on it;

 

Those plastic jars with lids became very useful — shaking makes bubbles!

 

The jars also provide a way to transport the water to where you want to use it;

 

And you can ‘pour’ water down the slide without loosing the water;

 

Water and tubes and soup together — there were some issues with using dirty outdoor toys to blow bubbles (some of us were more concerned than others);

 

We practiced the ‘scoop and fill’ technique;

 

And experimented with obstacles in the path of water;

 

Taking turns trying both roles;

 

Since I was just wandering around taking pictures I got enlisted to hold the hose so it could be filled with water — I had to follow very specific instructions;

 

So the water ultimately got from jar to hose and then to another jar;

 

And of course ‘clean-up’ time has a whole new meaning now;

 

We have to make sure there is enough time to dry the toys too;

 

Good thing it was warm and sunny.