Halloween Water Play

Water play is always fun and it's the perfect thing to keep kids entertained, but near you while you are busy in the kitchen (if you're not including your little one in the process for whatever reason), here's a fun Halloween one we've made. 

My daughter has always loved any and all water play and this Halloween themed one was no exception. I colored the water purple with food coloring, then I added in some plastic spooky things like skeletons, spiders, bats, snakes, and flies. You can find bags of things like this usually at Dollar Tree, Party City, places like that around Halloween time.

She wanted to use the pumpkin scoop with it so I let her of course, and we paired it with a purple bowl with spider webs on it to keep with the color scheme and the theme. Another bowl is almost always needed with water play since kids love to transfer so much. My daughter would scoop some water and things into the bowl, pour the bowl back into the bin, over and over for a little while.

Bug Wash Water Play

We love water play, especially as a way to cool off on hot summer days! The other night I set up this water play for my daughter and she had a lot of fun with it. It's such a simple way to have fun and when it's done outside you don't even have to worry about cleaning up the water.

I gave her a big plastic bowl of water with soap in it so it was bubbly for washing, a littler plastic bowl with just water for rinsing, and a towel for drying. She helped me set all her big bugs out in a row. I love how realistic these bugs look, we found a pack of them at Joanne Fabric's when she was having her bug themed second birthday party.

 She got right to washing, rinsing and drying her bugs.

Bird Themed Sensory Bath

So, this is by no means like some of my other very thought out themed baths I have posted in the past. My daughter asked me right at bath time the other night to make her a bird themed bath, and I'm going to share my impromptu ideas with you, because she actually did like it a lot!

First for the paint. I made the bath paint by mixing shaving cream and some blue food coloring in a little bowl with a paint brush. I chose blue because I was thinking blue bird. Then I stuck in some feathers that we had in our craft bin, and put it out on the side of the tub with a little owl bath toy.

Then what made a really cool sensory experience and made me decide to share was the feathers in the water. Not to mention how beautiful they looked when floating!

A big part of sensory play for kids is discovering new tactile sensations they haven't experienced before. Feathers in water is surely a pretty rare one. So, you can add feathers to a bath of yours for a simple bird themed sensory bath like this, or just put some feathers into a bin of water for some water play featuring a new sensory experience.

As you may have noticed I colored the water a bit, and it's not pictured by I also tossed in some plastic eggs because we have them out since Easter is coming up, and hey birds do come from eggs! Plastic Easter eggs always make a great addition to a bath, and I can't wait to do my daughters bath filled with them on Easter!

Frankenstein Wet Cotton Ball Play

Kids love water play, and most will love wet cotton ball play too! My daughter surely does. I had an idea one day to try to make wet cotton balls look like Frankenstein. I was surprised how wonderful it turned out. 

You'll need:

• A baking sheet
• Cotton balls
• Water
• Neon green food coloring
• Black food coloring
• Small cups

You'll need to take your small cups and fill them with water, and then add in some green food coloring to one cup, and some black food coloring to the other cup. Then one by one dip the cotton balls in the colored water and put them on the baking sheet to make them look like Frankenstein. 

Then show your little one how to grab the cotton balls and squeeze the water out of them!

Color Mixing Water Play

Water play is a great way to beat the summer heat and almost all kids love it! This particular one we did last year was to teach color mixing. It was to show that when red and blue mix together they create purple. 

I set my daughter up outside with a bin full of water and two clear plastic cups one with red water and one with blue water. I colored the waters with food coloring, a few drops each. She poured in the red first!

Next went the blue, and the colors mixed to make purple. In the picture the water still looks blue but it was a lovely shade of purple in person.

After we did that and discussed the color theory and all that she started just playing with the water. Splashing around in it and then using the cups to scoop and pour the water from one to the other. Lots of summer fun!

Roses & Petals Water Play/Science

My daughter always enjoys water play, and so do many other kids. Finding new things to incorporate in our water plays always makes us happy. Rose petals make a great addition to a sensory bin that's filled with water. We had yellow and pink rose petals from my mother's day flowers so we used those.

I let my daughter have a chance to peel the petals apart and add them to the water.

This was a great sensory experience for her, and a good science lesson too. She took all the petals off of one rose and asked what the parts left over were called. We looked it up together and found out which part was the "hip" and which were the "anthers"



Once all the petals, and some whole roses were in the water she really enjoyed feeling them wet. She'd splash them around and say they were getting a bath. Then, more science was happening! We decided to talk about whether or not the petals and the roses floated. She also discovered she could squeeze some water out of the petals. So much fun!

Lemonade Stand Water Play

In the summer when it's hot out and the sun is beating down we love to engage in some water play to cool us off while we have fun! This water play activity not only lets kids play with water of course (which they LOVE) but it has sensory play to it and most importantly pretend play! It's so important for kids to start pretend play at a young age. Pretend play helps develop imagination and act out real life scenarios. There's usually lots of other skills learned during as well.

Note: before I start sharing the how-to's I'd like to add that this particular water play could also be part of a yellow themed week or day to help babies and young toddlers learn their colors.

So here's what it looks like!

You'll need:
- a plastic bin (preferably clear)
- yellow food coloring
- water
- lemon essential oil
- a ladle
- artificial lemons (a few, can be found at Dollar Tree)
- Styrofoam or plastic cups
- my daughter also wanted me to add some measuring spoons, so of course I did

Fill up the bin with the desired amount of water. Add in some drops of yellow food coloring (be careful not to add to much or it will turn the water orange). Stir that around until all the water is yellow. Add in a few drops of lemon essential oil to scent the water to add in the extra sensory element that will really bring the play to life.

If you want to add even more texture for more sensory elements you could add in some real lemon zest too.

Next, add in the ladle, lemons, and cups. You can set it up with the cups to the side like I did too. I also had a little plastic yellow bowl/cup thing that I added in.

As you can see my daughter got right to scooping and pouring the water and making me cups of lemonade!

Ocean Water Play

My daughter, like most children, LOVES doing water play. If you haven't tried it with your little one yet you definitely should. It's always a hit here! Water play indoors is always okay if you have towels and such nearby, water play is the summer months is a good idea too as a way to beat the heat outdoors. For this water play session I went with an Ocean theme.

To start I got out one of our sensory bins and filled it up with water, then mixed in some neon blue food coloring until I got the color I wanted. Then I added in some seashells and the contents of our Animal Planet Animal Head Tube - Sea Life tube. 

My daughter played and played for a while. At first she delighted in looking at all of the sea animals. The great thing about the ones from the Animal Planet tube is that they all have the names written on their bottoms so you can work some knowledge in during play.

After a while I gave my daughter a plastic cup so she could pour the water, or collect sea animals in it.

Alphabet Soup Water Play

This was a HUGE favorite on my previous blog, and it's a big hit here in our house as well! Kids love water play, and parents love it to when it's a way to help them beat the heat outside in the Summer sun. Another super bonus is there's learning involved! You'll need two big bowls, water, a ladle (or two if you're my daughter lol) and a pack of magnetic alphabet letters. Fill one of the big bowls up with cold water and all the letters. Take it outside in the yard or wherever, then bring out the other bowl and the ladles.

Charlie dug right into it! I bet your child will too! As they enjoy the water and the scooping and pouring, work the learning in. Tell them what letter they have in their ladle or hands. You could also talk about the colors of the letters and how many their are in which bowl. The opportunities are pretty plentiful. 

You can even get some greater pretend play out of it than just the "soup" aspect. You could bring out some little plastic bowls and have them serve you up soup! You could order up certain letters in your soup!

Wet Cotton Ball Play: Flowers

Wet Cotton Ball Play is my own fun twist on water play. It's like adding an extra element or material that totally transforms the play into something way more fun. What I'm sharing today is how to make these fabulous Wet Cotton Ball Play: Flowers. Setting them out is a great invitation to play for kids! Can also be a good Spring activity to lead into a discussion about flowers.

So what you'll need is:

- A bag of cotton balls (can be found at Dollar Tree)

- Food coloring in pink, purple, yellow, and green

- A small baking sheet

- Four little cups of water

First you add a few drops of food coloring into the cups of water. One different color per cup. Then you take your cotton balls and you soak them in the colored waters one at a time just for a few seconds. I liked to start with the yellow ones for the center of the flowers, then building around them. Then you do a few in the pink to make that flower, and a few in the purple to make that flower. Then several in the green to make the stems and leaves of the flowers.

Once it's finished your child can begin to play! They can squeeze the colored water out of the cotton balls, making them white and dry again. They will absolutely delight in the simple magic of this activity. 

The Ultimate Pouring Bath

Even though this activity is in the tub I added it to our list of "Water Play" things because it's great for those kids who love to play with water and do all the pouring and scooping.

So to make this fantastically fun bath that is sure to delight any toddler fill up the tub with water, and add a few drops of food coloring in their favorite color about halfway through. That will add another exciting element for them! Then add things (in the water, sitting on the side of the tub) that they can use to put water in, transfer water with, do neat water effects, etc.

We used the following:
- A recycled puffs container
- two small tupperware containers
- a recyled water bottle
- a toy teacup
- a big plastic measuring cup
- toy watering can
- plastic pitcher
- funnel
- handheld colander

You'll probably have most of this stuff at home, or similar items. If not, most can be found at Dollar Tree as well. We got that handheld colander from there and it was the funnest thing in the tub!