Looking for a new set of colors to explore? Try neon water play!
Water play is hands down, my saving grace to motherhood. Neon water play is one step up from primary color exploration.
It gives my preschoolers to explore transporting, measuring, and pouring as I wash the dishes after breakfast. I know, how exciting, right? #momlife But I am grateful for these moments to catch my breath and get things done.
RELATED: How can you implement sensory learning at home? Here’s how we introduce sensory play.
When we are not working on Breakfast Invitations, you can find us ankle-deep in ice. So after almost 44 days of summer and water play fun, we’ve spiced things up.
Move over primary colors, we’ve found NEON!
RELATED: We love water games so much that we have created this FREE DOWNLOAD featuring Water Games!
Sensory play such as this help my boys learn how to collaborate and work together.
You can learn more about how we redirect arguments here, and our essentials for setting up here.
Now here is a little tip for preschool activities.
Use what you have.
Can you believe it is that simple? Sure, we need a couple of things here and there to get started such as neon food coloring, squirt bottles, and a storage bin. But after that, the world is your oyster. Find it. Use it.
In this case, I knew I had a bag of cotton balls that have been sitting on the shelf for the last two years. – no joke. I also knew that cotton balls absorb water, so it was a no-brainer the second they were staring back at me.
Remember, buy the essentials, use what you have for the rest.
Here’s what’s needed for Neon Water Play:
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What is great about this sensory bin wish list is that you will be able to use them again and again. There is something about a squirt bottle and water that just never gets old.
We use these squirt bottles for color mixing, squirting the number, and splashing the alphabet. – All super fun games that you can set up in minutes!
These squirt bottles are also helping our preschoolers prepare for writing and pencil grip when they are ready!
The SUPER SIMPLE setup:
By now, my boys pretty much take the lead on setting up their sensory bin.
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We add 5 drops of food coloring into each container.
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Fill the remaining with water.
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Cap, and shake.
I tossed in a couple of cotton balls for absorption observations and off they went! They were STOKED about their new neon food coloring.
What’s best about water play is that neon water play is so open-ended.
There is no definitive start or finish and it leaves plenty of room for investigation. You can even ask simple open-ended questions to extend their thinking:
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“What happened when you mixed the neon red with the neon yellow?”
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“How is the clear squirt bottle different than the colored ones?”
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“When we add ice, what happens to different colors? Are there any changes?”
When will you try neon water play and explore?
