Toddlers love to play with water. These fun Water Activities for Toddlers can be adapted for indoor or outdoor use and will keep young children busy for hours.
Something about water just fascinates toddlers. The way the water feels and moves is a constant source of wonder for kids. Here are four activities to harness that fascination, either outside in the yard or inside over the kitchen sink.
Outdoor Activities for Toddlers
Water Activities for Toddlers
Painting with Water
Kids love seeing how colors get darker when they paint over them with water. If the weather permits, take them outside, hand them a paintbrush and a bucket of water, and let them paint the house. Some kids also enjoy painting the sidewalk.
For indoor adaptation, present toddlers with a craft paintbrush and differently colored pieces of paper. Watch them get creative as they make patterns with their brush and point out how the colors “change.”
Dropping Rocks into Water
Toddlers enjoy throwing stones into a creek or lake, so why not bring the fun to your own backyard or kitchen? Fill up the kitchen sink or a bucket in the backyard with water and let them toss in rocks.
Encourage their inner scientist with questions. What happens to the size of the splash when you drop the rocks from high up rather than close to the bucket? Try dropping in other objects like toys, leaves, sticks, or kitchen utensils. Do they float or sink?
Kitchen Utensil Water Play
Either outside with a large basin of water or indoors in the bathtub, provide toddlers with containers in a variety of shapes and sizes, along with kitchen supplies like sponges, basters, colanders, whisks, measuring cups, and funnels.
Toddlers can experiment with moving the water from one place to another with the various implements. They also might like mixing up a pretend “treat,” adding ingredients like bath toys (inside) or leaves or grass (outside).
Consider adding a water table for your child’s outdoor play, too! All three of my kids loved their water tables as toddlers.
Break the Ice
Use large containers like 9″x13″ pans, bundt cake pans, and mixing bowls to make giant blocks of ice. Food coloring can be added to the water beforehand if desired. Freeze in layers, adding toys every so often. When you are finished, you’ll have a block of ice with toys “trapped” inside.
Take toddlers outside and tell them to bang away with a plastic hammer or other object to free the toys! It helps to let the ice melt a little first to soften it. For indoor play, place the ice block in a sink or bathtub.
Summer is a great time to take toddlers outside for these water games, but these activities can be adapted for indoor use at any time of the year. Kids always love to play with water, so these activities are sure to be a hit.
Plus, enjoy this FREE Fun Water Activities for Kids Bucket List printable.
