Water play is a favorite activity in my own house and in my classroom. It usually take minimal accessories and supplies and can be set up (and cleaned up!) in just minutes. The weather is gorgeous, so most of our sensory bins, like our Star Sensory Water Play, are being played with outside at this time of year. But the nice thing about water play is that you decide the size of the container to use and how much water to add! It can be as low key and simple as you like.
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Star Sensory Water Play
Setting up the star sensory water play bin for my preschooler took no time at all! I had purchased the reusable colored ice cube stars {similar to these HERE} from Walmart and my kids have been asking what we were going to do with them. So it was super exciting for my preschooler when I added them to the bin with water!
Our favorite double scoopers, tongs, and sand shovels were used during the water play with the stars.
Beyond just pretending while playing and have a blast, many toddler and preschool skills are used during the Star Sensory Soup play.
Fine motor skills are strengthened with each opening and closing of the scoopers and each squeeze of the tongs. These activities help get little hands and fingers ready to hold pencils and scissors correctly!
Cups were added to the table to sort the stars into colors. Counting skills were practiced as she added each star to the cups or when she was trying to scoop up stars into the shovel.
Predictions were made – “I think I can scoop all the blue stars into the shovel in one try!”
Estimation was introduced – “It looks like the scooper can only fit 2 stars.”
Cause & Effect – “If I put too many stars into the cups filled with water, the water comes out!”
Oh, and there was lots of playing fun going on too!
This sensory bin can be used while learning about stars in the nighttime sky, starfish swimming in the ocean, or nursery rhymes with Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. It can be adapted to fit the needs in your classroom or with you kids at home!
You can find so many ocean activities to go along with this sensory bin!
Great activity – I love that you turned fun water play into a science activity ! I've pinned & will share on facebook. Thanks for joining in #ToddlerFunFriday