There's so much to do with water and mud! Leave a play invitation out with water, different sized containers, and some nearby dirt and see what happens.
Paint with water: Water can be used to paint designs on sidewalks, decks, or other surfaces. You can use a regular paintbrush, or try using materials like pinecones or a stick as a paint brush. How long does it take for your design to fade?
Paint with mud: Mix up some mud with dirt and water. You can paint with the mud using a brush or your hands, putting handprints on the sidewalk or “painting” a fence. You can also use a stick to draw designs in the mud.
Make mud clay: Mud can be mixed and shaped into cookies, balls, bricks, pies, worms, and so on depending on where your imagination takes you. Add cake pans, muffin tins, spoons, bowls, rocks, and sticks for more possibilities. If you add more water, you can make mud stew with weeds.
Make coloured ice blocks: Use containers such as milk cartons to make large blocks of ice. Add food colouring to each carton before you freeze them. When you peel away the milk carton, you’ll have beautifully coloured blocks you can use for building ice sculptures or structures.
Freeze toys or natural items in ice: When you make your blocks of ice, try adding objects like toy animals before putting them in the freezer. You can use containers or zip locks. The children can try and free them by smashing the ice or can just watch them melt out.
Water play with solid objects: A plastic bin or dishpan can be filled with water or ice cubes and used for play. You can add materials like rocks, toy sea life, and other materials. Young children also enjoy filling containers with water and then dumping it out. You might add kitchen implements like funnels, different sizes of measuring cups, colanders, and whisks to your homemade water table. Add bubbles if you like.
Water and ice play: If you have two bins or dishpans, try filling one with water and one with ice cubes. Young children can use a spoon or scoop to move the ice cubes into the water. They can watch what happens to the ice.
Make outdoor water pathways: Use materials you have around your home to make paths for water (or muddy water) to travel through outside---eaves troughs, pool noodles, or pipes.
Play with straws and water: Using a straw, blow water around on a piece of coloured construction paper.
Have a mud spa: Cover areas of skin with wet mud and watch it dry, then rinse it off.
Have an outdoor bath: If you have a kiddie pool, fill it with water in the morning and bring some soap and shampoo out in the evening for a warm evening bath outside.
The Summer of Play project and the contents on this page are part of an initiative that grew out of the Canadian Association for Young Children. Please visit CAYC Saskatchewan on Facebook for more information: http://www.facebook.com/CAYCsask
