This summer has been a hot one here at Rising Oaks Early Learning | John Sweeney. In the toddler room, water days has often been the highlight of our weeks. Not only do we have water days, we also have water play in the classroom. Water is a wonderful sensory activity and it leads to many different kinds of developmental play.
“It’s frozen!” Lily exclaims as she held a piece of ice with animal figures frozen inside. The sensory table in the classroom was filled with tiny animal figures frozen in blocks of ice with droppers, floating in coloured water. Lily, Lilia, Nora, Malcolm and Kai enjoyed holding the cold ice and dropping in the water. They dropped water on the ice with droppers using fine motor skills to do so. Squeezing a dropper helps strengthen the tiny muscles in the hands that help with holding a pencil. When the animals were finally freed from the ice the toddlers counted how many cows, foxes and rabbits there were.
Outside during a water day we dug a deep hole in the sand. Saylor, Malcolm and Lily put there feet in the hole and Lilia and Finley filled the hole up with water. “I get some water!” Lilia yelled and Malcolm yelled, ”Me too! Both toddlers filled their buckets and transported the water back to the hole. They worked as a team to create a mini spa day for each other. When the hole was full of water, the toddlers traded places. Lilia and Finley put their feet in the hole and Malcolm and Lily filled bowls and measuring glasses with water and filled the hole for their friends. “My toes, my toes!” Lilia exclaimed as she had a bowl of water poured over her feet!
Pouring material from one vessel to another is a normal part of development called the transporting schema. The allows children to explore movement, spatial awareness while building fine motor skill. This also helps our toddler begin to perfect the skills to pour a glass of water or milk! Water play supports this development as well as hand eye coordination and large gross muscle development from carrying water to and from the playground.
The best part is the children can’t get enough of it and the summer gives us the right temperature to be outside. What about the winter? Water play continues with activities in the snow! Bringing water outside to freeze is a great activity. A shallow tray and some loose parts make a beautiful sun cream catcher when frozen. A container of snow inside on a tray is a great sensory activity to enjoy with some arctic animal toys.
There are so many things to learn and we are lucky enough to learn them during play here at RisingOaks Early Learning | John Sweeney!
