Colored Water Transfer Play for Toddlers

hands on : as we grow http://ift.tt/1aMdrwH

I’ve been revisiting old activities again, doing them with Louis this time. George and Henry have both enjoyed transferring colored water.

This water activity is a no-brainer, no fail, and lots of fun!

This time, we took the water outside because it was a crazy nice day for April! You could set this up inside though, in the sink or bathtub, or on the floor with a shower curtain or towels laid out.

See 10 tips to keep messy play clean

I filled two tubs with water and added food coloring to each. One with blue and one with yellow.

You could add the third primary color (red) if you’d like to practice mixing all the primary colors. I chose not to because I really wanted this to just be open-ended play and not about the color mixing. That was just a secondary surprise for Louis.

Also, if I had included red as well, all three mixed together would end up with brown water and that’s just no fun at all!

I made sure to set out a third, empty tub for Louis to scoop and pour the colored water into.

I set out scoops to transfer the water, including an ice cream scoop (which ended up being his favorite), measuring spoons, a can strainer and a larger mug.

Louis immediately saw the color change!

He’s just excited to name colors at this stage so it was really fun when he screamed GREEEEN!!!!

I had thought that he would end up just dumping the tubs into the big one, but he didn’t! I was surprised! (The other kids did that immediately!)

Louis patiently scooped one at a time.

I also thought he would use the big mug as a big scoop.

Instead, he decided he needed to put the water in that too and he made green with that too!

It was a wonderful activity for a wonderfully nice day. It sat out for most of the afternoon.

Louis played with it for quite awhile, took a break and rode his big wheels around and came back and scooped and poured more water. Back and forth.

Want more water play activities?

• Try washing toys in a tub of soapy water.
• Or just make bubbles!
• Try tracing lines of chalk with water.

Colored Water Transfer Play for Toddlers on handsonaswegrow.com