💧Children’s love of water💧
Whether it’s a large water tray, a paddling pool, a cosy warm bath or a cold bucket of water, most children adore ‘water play’. In fact, many seem to be magnetised towards water. Think of the fascination that comes across their face when they see that giant puddle or when you have had the privilege of taking a class on a day trip and that little girl, with eyes open wide, sees the ocean for the first time. Water provides children with a simply wonderful learning and sensory experience and is one of the only free, basic materials that promotes really purposeful play. Our little scientists are able to pour, fill, splash and feel their way around the properties of water. They can even go on to learn early physic skills when seeing if that stone they found floats or sinks.
Water is also brilliant at supporting children’s natural ‘schemas’. Such as: - Enclosure/container – fill, pour, empty, sink - Transporting – moving water from one place to another - Transformation – mixing water with clay, sand and other additions. During these challenging times, as many settings prepare to open up, communal water trays are one of the many resources being removed for safety. However water need not disappear completely from our provision. Individual water play is a perfect alternative. Providing children with a single washing up bowl (or similar) with lots of soapy, bubbly water is a perfect alternative and easy to maintain and clean. Children can still play nearby others who are also doing the same and as water seems to encourage the most reticent of language users to speak, you may start to hear some animated chats too! One of water’s most endearing attributes is its wonderful therapeutic nature and, after the trauma many of our children will have gone through over the past months, what a wonderful way to calm their worrying minds. 💙💧 💦 💧 💦 💧 💦 💧 💦 💧 💙 https://instagram.com/we_are_little_wonders… #waterplay #eyfs #eyfsideas #earlyyears #playtolearn #schemas
