Do pre-school children enjoy water play toys?

Question

I am looking into toys available for pre-school children that are water based, so far it appears there are limited choices. I'm curious whether this is a lack of interest especially as my two children (aged 3 and 8) love water play and will find a way of manipulating water with whatever they can find. I would also be interested in the specifics of childrens play i.e splashing, pouring, filling and emptying etc. Any information would be great as I am a trainee teacher looking at ways of improving learning techniques.

Answer 1

I currently work with preschool children, and aside from the usual water toys of, measuring cups, funnels, plastic boats, etc. I add cornstarch to the water, it makes for a fun time for all. Add enough to cover the bottom of the container about an inch thick. The kids will love it, and it's great for small motor skills in the hands and fingers.

Answer 2

I babysit preschool age children and have found that water play can be a great way to learn. Some of the best things for water play are the strang knick knacks around your home. We often play a game called "sink or float" where the children get to guess if an certain object will sink or float in the bathtub.

We also like to buy those little capsules that expand into animals when placed into water and make the animal sounds when we finally figure out which animal it is.

Avon every so often has some great water toys which keep the children the busy in the tub till they look like prunes. We bought some water wheels, magic bath tub paint, and magic expanding wash cloths from there that made playing in water fun.

Another water play game we do is called "Sink the ship", in which we use clay or popsicle sticks and make sail boats. With the sail boats we play a counting/ guessing game. The counting game consists of counting how many marbles (placing them one by one into the boat) until the ship sinks or for guessing the same way. The children usually laugh and find it funny to sink the ships. We also dicuss why different ships sink faster than others.

Sometimes to step away a little from playing in water we do things that are a lot like playing in water but with different materials. One of these projects is finger painting or for an even cleaner project we use shaving cream. Of course for the girls you may wish to buy a fememine smelling cream and seperate the children by sex. We lay out large pieces of aluminum foil out on the tables and spray a pile of shaving cream in the middle. We have the children write their name, draw shapes and numbers and whatever else in the shaving cream. This project gets them a little wound up by the point is to have a blast while learning.

Hope these ideas helped!

Answer 3

Actually children loves to play in water, besides what you have written you can set up a washing area where children can come and use empty boxes of detergants, water buckets, clothes, pegs, strings and so many other washing related toys. You can put real objectives as well. Other toys could be water animals, water plants, divors, and water transport. You can put different empty plastic bottles to give them the concept of full and empty, different sizes of pebbles and furs for heavy and light, you can teach them mixing of colours in that water area, concept of hot and cold, wet and dry and so on. Young childrens are like a plain paper with nothing written on it, write what ever you know correctly and then just watch the results, 100% Satisfaction Guaranted.

Answer 4

Children of all ages love water play but pre school children really love it as at home the only experience of water will be bath time.
Everything you have said is along the right lines other water play based play for learning is washing clothes as it teaches not only water is for playing, cleaning but washing bit odd I know but they love washing dolly and its clothes at that age.
using water with other substances is also good IE food colouring to chance colour, bubbles is another great hit using a tube to blow the bubbles. Mixing cornflour in to water is fantastic for texture and colour. Floating games what sinks what floats is another great learning experience for children. I would have objetcs and ask what will float what will sink?
To be honest finding the equipment is hard as it is manly the pouring items and wheels that are available . Look around the house there are lots of things to use, pots/pans/cups/spoons/marbles/washing up liquid/food colouring/cornflour/leaves/feathers/dolls/clothes/list is endless.
I used to run baby and mother groups/playgroups ect and everyone loved the water play even the babies. Children learn more from playing than anything else especially when very young and it is a shame for them not to have the experience of water only to have a bath/shower in.

Answer 5

Children at the Preschool level really enjoy water play. Often, I'll send one to the bathroom to wash their hands, and they don't come back. They're enjoying just letting the water run over their little fingers! In my water table I have measuring cups, bottles, ladles and odds & ends that float. Sometimes, I add a little dishwashing soap, and a hand held mixer so they can create their own bubbles. The objects don't have to be fancy, just things found around the house. Oh, yes, one of their favorites is a turkey baster.

Answer 6

Yes, preschool children, as a whole, delight in water play. At most good preschools, there are water tables where they can play at free play time. There are also a lot of science experiments (pre-school level) which are done with water. Remember, there are more things to do than just pouring, filling, and emptying. There is "what floats, and what doesn't float", there is "dry absorbs water" there is "mix food coloring in water" there are water wheels, etc. too~!

Answer 7

ELC used to do great bath toys, you stuck them on with big suckers, and there were water wheels and stuff. You, er the child has to pour water from a jug to get them moving. And there were stick on letters and shapes for the tiles. Other than that, it was all stuff from around the home.
And don't forget the perennial favourites, blowing bubbles through a plastic tube, and a hat and beard made of foam.

Answer 8

Other than children with specific water sensory issues, just about every child LOVES waterplay. Check out magazines like Lakeshore for water play toys. But just about everything can be a waterplay toy... toy dinosaurs, animals, cars, anything you or the children can think of!

Answer 9

The montessori school I was employed by used a bowl, a hand mixer and dishwashing liquid. Fill the bowl with water , drop in a few drops of soap and let the child mix until theres bubbles. Also a hand pump and a large tub of water. Look it up on montessori websites.

Answer 10

pre school children love water play toys! a water table is lots of fun for kids and can also be used for sand too. another great thing to do with a water table is bring snow in during the winter. just put on a pair of gloves and you have the fun of snow indoors!