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Splish, Splash I’m not takin’ a bath…I’m just playing with water! These activities are designed to delight your little one with all the sensory fun of water while also delivering the soothing social and emotional benefits inherent in this type of play. Discover ways to play with water in all kinds of places and with unexpected materials.

Test the Water

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Test the Water

Image of the food coloring needed for this DIY water activity for kids.

Ready

  • Gallon sized Ziploc bags
  • Water
  • Food coloring
  • Masking tape
Image of a DIY water activity for kids. 
Blue colored water is sealed in a ziploc bag.

Set

  • Fill your Ziploc bag with water, leaving a generous amount of air at the top.
  • Add several drops of food coloring.
  • Seal your Ziploc and tape all sides to a flat surface.
Image of a child engaging in DIY water activities for kids. Their hand is touching and manipulating colorful water sealed in a ziploc bag.

Play!

  • Touch, smooth, press, and poke the water inside your Ziploc bag.
  • Make a 2nd bag (using a different color) and experiment with placing it near or on top of your original Ziploc.
  • Try touching your bag with your toes!
  • Attach your bag to a window or a light table to explore the way light transforms your water play.


Play your way! What else can you do with your new water materials?

Why Play This Way?

This simple activity engages children in an independent sensory experience while inviting them to playfully experiment with cause and effect. Even better, since you are exploring the properties of water without the “wetness,” you can take your water on the go, or even extend family dinner time by taping your Ziploc bag down to the table/highchair.

Better with a Book

At LᐧMᐧNᐧOᐧPlay!, we love to pair our play with a great book.

Water Play

Extension Activities

Choose your own adventure! Select any of the extension activities or resources below and see where your play takes you next. They all build on the same play theme to extend your learning in even more ways.

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Splish, Splash I’m not takin’ a bath…I’m just playing with water! These activities are designed to delight your little one with all the sensory fun of water while also delivering the soothing social and emotional benefits inherent in this type of play. Discover ways to play with water in all kinds of places and with unexpected materials.

Make math time happy with these fun counting activities. #1: Create your own abacus. #2: Count and play all day! These activity ideas provide a playful introduction to counting and the many ways that we encounter and use math in everyday life.

Roll on into fruit play! Have a blast experiencing fruit in new and hilarious ways that will get you moving and laughing. Get your muscles ready, but be prepared! These activities might make you hungry and ready to quickly transition from playing to eating!

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Play ideas for all those times you need a little gentle, quiet fun. Reach for these activities whenever you are looking for ways to create a soothing environment or bring calm to your mind and body.

This activity is pure magic.✨ Children will be filled with wonder as they prepare their special fairy houses and adults will be transported to the joy of being a child again.

You will be naturally drawn to this beautiful illuminated play. As soothing as it is exciting, your little one will be filled with wonder as they explore the many items that you place on your new favorite learning platform. We are so happy that you decided to put a spotlight on this magical play.

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keep playing

more fun activities

Whoever said work isn’t fun?! These activities, inspired by Joan Heilbroner’s marvelous book “Robert the Rose Horse”, reinforce the notion that “Play is the work of childhood!” Explore countless opportunities to notice the important jobs and workers around you. Then, discover the ways that even the youngest among us can be workers too!

Splish, Splash I’m not takin’ a bath…I’m just playing with water! These activities are designed to delight your little one with all the sensory fun of water while also delivering the soothing social and emotional benefits inherent in this type of play. Discover ways to play with water in all kinds of places and with unexpected materials.

Make math time happy with these fun counting activities. #1: Create your own abacus. #2: Count and play all day! These activity ideas provide a playful introduction to counting and the many ways that we encounter and use math in everyday life.

Roll on into fruit play! Have a blast experiencing fruit in new and hilarious ways that will get you moving and laughing. Get your muscles ready, but be prepared! These activities might make you hungry and ready to quickly transition from playing to eating!

This game brings all the creative fun of printmaking to the sensory goodness of dough play and then adds a clever twist! You make the prints, and your friend guesses what you used to make them. But watch out…it’s simple to make a mark, but easy to be fooled when you are the guesser. When you’re done with the game, keep playing with The Dough Project’s super, all natural, dough.

Feeling big emotions is perfectly healthy. However, for young children, this can be scary because they feel and are out of control. This play, inspired by Jabari Jumps by Gaia Cornwall, will give you new ideas for how to be brave even in the face of big challenges.

Play ideas for all those times you need a little gentle, quiet fun. Reach for these activities whenever you are looking for ways to create a soothing environment or bring calm to your mind and body.

This activity is pure magic.✨ Children will be filled with wonder as they prepare their special fairy houses and adults will be transported to the joy of being a child again.

You will be naturally drawn to this beautiful illuminated play. As soothing as it is exciting, your little one will be filled with wonder as they explore the many items that you place on your new favorite learning platform. We are so happy that you decided to put a spotlight on this magical play.

What’s black and white all over? This play activity! Invite your child to explore this amazing play that will inspire curiosity and ignite their inner designer. In experimenting and examining each object independent of its color your little one will engage more deeply with all of the other properties of the play materials they are using. Open-ended and easy to set up this original play is sure to be a winner for children of ALL ages.

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