![[Nursery/Kindergarten] Water play ideas that kids will love](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/I8bAGe4HIXk/sddefault.jpg)
Water play is essential in the hot summer!
Many children are probably looking forward to touching water or getting into the pool.
Through water play, we want them to grow familiar with water and fully enjoy themselves while feeling the coolness and texture on their skin.
So this time, we’re introducing water play ideas that kids will love.
We’ve gathered plenty of activities to spark their excitement: not only games you can play in the water, but also DIY water toys made from recycled materials, and sensory play using bubbles and colored water.
Since some children may feel fear or resistance toward water, please choose activities that everyone can enjoy, and adapt them to each child’s pace!
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[Nursery/Kindergarten] Water Play Ideas Kids Will Love (1–10)
Play with empty containers like plastic bottles
There are all kinds of containers we throw away in everyday life, like plastic bottles and egg cartons, right? Actually, those containers are perfect for water play! For infants and toddlers, just filling and pouring water is fun, and for preschoolers you can have water-carrying races by filling the containers.
If you can use paint or food coloring, colored-water play is great too.
You can also poke several holes to make a shower, pretend they’re boats and float them on the water, then use fans to create a racing game.
Gather a variety of containers and let your imagination lead the way!
swim goggles
Let’s play with a “milk carton underwater viewer”! You can make it with a milk carton, plastic wrap, tape, rubber bands, a plastic string, and scissors.
First, cut off the spout and the bottom of the empty milk carton with scissors to make it into a tube.
Once it’s a tube, cover one end with plastic wrap and secure it with a rubber band.
Then tape over the rubber band to fix the wrap in place.
That’s all it takes to complete the underwater viewer.
If you want to hang it around your neck, punch two holes on the side without the plastic wrap and thread a plastic string through.
With this viewer, you can see clearly underwater without putting your face in the water.
Try sinking toy sea creatures or pretty stones in a pool and have fun looking at them!
playing train
A fun game you can enjoy even if you can’t swim: “Train Play”! Form a team of about five people and line up in a single file.
Place both hands on the shoulders of the person in front to make one train.
You can walk in the water in any direction you like, or race from one end of the pool to the other when given the start signal.
It’s also fun to play “Rock-Paper-Scissors Train” to make one big train.
Walking in water is surprisingly tricky, so the person at the front should be careful to move in a way that keeps the team together.
This is recommended as a warm-up game to get used to the water before swimming.
Super Ball scooping
How about boldly recreating the classic summer festival game, Super Ball Scooping, at a kindergarten or at home? All you need, besides a kiddie pool, are some super balls and the paper scoops (poi) used to catch them.
You can easily find super balls and poi at 100-yen shops or online.
Kids are sure to get excited about Super Ball Scooping, since it’s not something they get to play very often! It’s also a nice bonus that you can set it up just by filling a home pool with water, so you can add it to your usual water play without much extra effort.
mud play
Kids love playing in the mud, don’t they? Some kindergartens and nurseries even encourage it by having children wear clothes that can get dirty and letting them enjoy mud play.
Doing the laundry afterward can be a hassle, but the kids are truly delighted! There are so many ways to play—pretend cooking with unused kitchen tools and dishes, making mud dumplings, or jumping into muddy puddles.
Mud play also has the benefit of helping build resistance to germs, so it’s a great idea to let them get thoroughly messy once in a while.
Let’s engage all five senses and connect with nature!
Imitation play
The classic “pretend play” from daycare and kindergarten is a big hit during water play too! Try walking through the water while pretending to be a duck, a crab, or a crocodile.
Even children who can’t put their faces in the water at first may get used to it by taking it step by step: start as a duck without putting the face in, then as a crab touching only the mouth to the water, and finally as a crocodile with the whole face in.
Just putting the face in might be scary, but becoming an animal can make it surprisingly fun.
Once they’ve mastered the duck, crab, and crocodile, let them pick their favorite creature and swim as that animal!
Crawling through a tunnel
First, make teams of about five people and line up in a single file.
Place both hands on the shoulders of the person in front to make a “train.” In that formation, walk through the pool, and have the person at the front play rock-paper-scissors with other teams or people.
The team that loses forms a tunnel, and the winning team gets to pass through it.
To make the tunnel, join your hands to form an arch, and vary the height each time.
If it’s high, you can pass through standing; if it’s low, you’ll need to put your face in the water to go under.
It’s a very game-like activity, so even those who aren’t strong swimmers can enjoy it!