How to explore H2O with your preschooler
wymbin.com
By Ashley Frampton
carole@wymbin.com
There’s no question that H2O, in all its forms, is fascinating to young children. When given opportunities to explore water and how it feels, tastes and looks, children’s natural curiosity about the world in general increases. I love providing my kids, both at home and school, opportunities to play with water in all of its different shapes. Here are some of our favorite ways to play! Liquid Water in its liquid form is super engaging for preschoolers, and while they play, they are learning so many scientific and mathematical concepts. A water table is one of the easiest ways to provide these opportunities to young children. Through activities like scooping, pouring, transferring, testing, floating and sinking, children are able to develop an understanding of concepts like motion, flow, measurement and buoyancy. You can purchase water tables online or at local department stores, but what’s the simplest way to get this play happening at home? A table with a large, shallow, rubbermaid storage container on top! Add some measuring cups, funnels and small toys, and you have yourself a budget-friendly water play station.
Solid Ice is a wonderfully tactile, sensory experience, providing opportunities to hone in on fine motor skills while learning about the properties of water in both its liquid and solid form. We love making frozen dinosaur eggs with mini figures. Simply fill a balloon with water and a mini plastic dinosaur or other small toy. Tie the balloon and freeze overnight. Remove dino eggs from the balloons and provide droppers, small tools, fabric and other materials and challenge children to free the dino! Another fun way to explore ice is by making frozen paint. Fill ice cube trays half full with tempera or water based acrylic. Top with water. Freeze for a few hours before sticking a popsicle stick in the top. Once they are completely frozen, remove the paint cubes from the trays and have children use them to create beautiful, frosty, masterpieces! Surface Tension Water has a thin, elastic, skin-like property called surface tension. You can see this when you drop a bead of water onto a surface… the surface tension is what holds it together and creates the dome shape. Older children can play with this concept using a penny and
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