Water Play to do with Your Toddler Right Now
Don’t-Miss Water Fun for Playing with Toddlers:
Water play is one of those things that tops the list of delightful things to do with toddlers. Grab this handful of supplies and head out to the patio to do this easy sensory activity with your toddler today. Go! Right now! It’s warm and sunny and so easy to delight your little one.
I bet you have all these things on hand:
- Plastic containers
- Sponges or small rags
- Paint brushes– I buys packs at the dollar store for this kind of play.
- Sidewalk chalk
Usually I like to gradually set out one item after another to extend the play, but sometimes it can be fun to just put out a big collection of interesting items like this and see what your child wants to do with them. As you hand these items to your toddler, they’ll know just how to play of course, but you can encourage all sorts of explorations.
Simple Water Play Ideas
- Pour from one container to another.
- Use the sponge or a rag to transfer water from one container to another. This kind of squeezing action is great for developing fine motor skills and is satisfying to little sensory systems.
- Grab a handful of rocks or outdoor toys for your tot to “clean.”
- Toss the sponge at a target (or at nothing at all, it’s just fun to toss wet things and see them splat.)
- Step on the wet sponge to feel it squish.
- Paint the sidewalk or the side of the house with water.
- If you have a spare paint roller your child can try that for painting too.
- Step in water and make foot prints.
- Let your child paint your hands or feet.
- Paint your child’s feet with water. Oh! That tickles!
- Dip the chalk in water and draw with it.
- Paint over the chalk lines.
- Pour the water on the chalk lines and wipes it away with the sponge.
- Drop chalk pieces in the water and stir them with the paint brush.
- Wrap the chalk in a wet rag and hand it to your toddler to find it.
- Drop rocks into the water container. Splash!
You don’t need lots of fancy toys or a water table to enjoy water play with your toddler. Grab these ordinary household items and have fun. For what it’s worth, my tot loved doing this, but it still didn’t take longer than 10 minutes and we she was on to something else. That’s totally normal for this age. Short bursts of interesting activity – we might come back to this later.
I hope you have fun playing in the water with your toddler today!
More Fun for Toddlers can be Found Here:
- More water play: Bath Toys to Get Toddlers to LOVE Bathtime – best bath toys for toddlers
- Get out and play in the snow: Snow Activities Toddlers Can Do – get outdoors this winter!
- Board games toddlers can play! 10+ Great Board Games for Toddlers
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I have a very active, hard to keep occupied 15 month old boy. I’ve had a tub of water on the porch that basically went unnoticed until I read this post. The SPONGE was a hit. Thank you!!!!!!!
Good ideas!
Yall must be reading my mind
Good idea my kids used to always do this when they were little
Catherine Tumanguil maybe we can do this next week
Jacquey Blake we should get some brushes n buckets and do this activity at Driver. Kids love it.
My daughter LOVES water play, and I thought it was just her. I guess not!
In addition to Monday Kid Corner Weekly Linky Party, this week’s theme is WATER. Brush off those archives and link them up at https://thejennyevolution.com/category/linky-parties/monday-kid-corner/ See you there! Jennifer
wow! thanks for sharing this.. i’ll be doing these thing and more exploring these with my children in the classroom 🙂
Alissa,
I’ll be out doing these things! Fun reminders of how simple it is to entertain these guys. Today, while I sanded our bench on the front porch, similar activities were happening in the fish tank…some redirection to some other water sources sounds useful. 🙂 It was awesome to see you today.
Dear Alyssa,
Great suggestions. I’m part of the KEEN Recess Team, and we’re looking for some fun Fourth of July activities for our readers, so your list is perfect!
Recess is a rallying cry for kids and adults to take a break from the daily grind, get outside, and create their own playground. Thank you for encouraging other families stay active.
Best,
KEEN Recess Team
Thanks KEEN! Happy Fourth of July!
Yes! We are having 107+ temps and this is a perfect way to get out of the house for even a short time and have some fun. I think I’ll also bring out some measuring cups for water transferring. Yay!
107 is HOT. I’m roasting when we get near 90 around here. Yes, we’ll be doing plenty of splashing and water play this weekend too 🙂
My daughter loves water in any way shape or form. These are some great ideas. One of her new favorites is colored ice cubes in the bathtub.
This looks like so much fun. Cute photo.
I do this with the preschoolers on our playground and they LOVE it! However, I’ve never attempted this with my toddler at home…now I shall! 🙂
Great list of ideas for water play. My daughter isn’t a toddler anymore and still enjoys many of these ways of playing with water!