Kids Love Cheap Easy Activities

Playing in Water is Fun & Teaching Time

Playing with water is a great way to have fun, increase vocabulary and teach.  Young children who read and do fun hands-on learning activities while talking to adults start school with about ten times as many words than children who don’t have these opportunities. 

Math and Science

  When the family heads to the beach for fun there can be  a little teaching, too. Take along different sized containers , a bucket, shovels, and plastic toys.  How many cups will fill a bucket?  How many buckets does it take to fill a hole in the sand? Where is the water going if  there is no exit stream? 

  Families can gather flat rocks on the beach and teach older children to skip them in the water.  Little children can throw a few stones in the water close to them.  Do bigger rocks make bigger splashes?  Why?

   Place some water in a container and start adding a few stones. Guess and count how many stones it takes before a container overflows. Gather natural items found on the beach and find out what floats and sinks.  Children also like to fill a small plastic boat- like container with rocks and estimate how many are needed to sink it.  You are teaching water displacement and volume which is a measure of the amount of space an object takes up.

  Children can make an outlet stream from their hole back to the lake. Now can they make a dam with sticks, stones, and mud?

  Speaking of mud, who can make the highest castle tower by drizzling mud through their fists?  This is a good technique for sugar sand that doesn’t pack well.

Water is Cheap Paint!

Paint and Wash with Water

  Water is a cheap paint, too. Young children love to paint with water and a small brush on colored paper or concrete. Provide a bucket and different kinds of paintbrushes. Together make the ABC’s, numbers, shapes, and draw pictures on the driveway. You can explain that the water molecules evaporate into the air.

 Children love to help clean bikes. They can use a hose or a thoroughly rinsed spray bottle filled with water.  Teach children how to spray and wipe with hand towels. They can also rinse off soap from your car and themselves on a hot day.

Indoor Water Fun

Water is Great Anywhere!!

  Water play is easy indoors, too.  Fill a dishpan or tub with water. Use plastic measuring cups to fill different containers.  Dolls, trucks and other toys can be washed with a little dish soap and a brush if you don’t plan to use the water for plants later. Give children straws to blow bubbles in the water or on their cupped hand. Estimate how many small toys are required to sink a container.

For more see grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com and wnmufm.org/Learning Through the Seasons live and podcasts.

 Photos: Fran Darling, fdarling fotos