Nice weather has arrived! Now’s the perfect time to capitalize on it and set up some water play projects and fun with your kids. They’re probably outside anyway, right? Here are a few ideas for you to teach your kids about the science of water with these tips, tricks, and ideas for experiments and fun. Bonus? They stay busy. Double bonus? They learn stuff.

WATER PLAY PROJECTS: The Basics

The good news about water play projects like these is you probably have everything you need on hand. Water, a hose, interesting toys of varying weights, and a few kitchen items such as cups, bowls, sponges, pepper, and soap. Ready?

Chemistry.About.com – A great site that will send you down an internet worm hole if you aren’t careful. One project per page, with clickable links to find correlating projects and more information. Here are a few of our favorites:

  • The Pepper Project – Help your kids learn about surface tension. What happens when you add a drop of soap into the bowl with water and pepper?
  • Anti-gravity Water – Another surface tension project, wow your kids with water that defies gravity.

ScienceKids – A wonderful kid-oriented site with experiments broken down into easy-to-follow instructions. Fun experiments like “Escaping Water” and “Ice Cube Magic” will keep your young ones engaged. Bonus? If you need a break, this site also has engaging online games and quizzes.

DIYnCrafts.com – Teach your kids how to re-grow food from scraps with this instructional site. It will walk you through regrowing some of the foods you and your family eat regularly such as lettuce, onions, and even pineapple! This one takes some patience for the plants to regrow, but it’s worth the wait. Within a few days you’ll see a change.

Creative Connections For Kids  – perfect project to do outside. Take the everyday objects you use and help them answer the question: does this float, or sink? This site guides you through the experiments with a pictorial, so it’s easy to follow.

Make Your Own Reservoir – A wonderful project to teach your kids about how groundwater works. This site has many more simple experiments to choose from. It’s well laid out and easy to understand.

Enjoy the beautiful weather and play with your kids. After all, YOU are truly their favorite toy!

water play projects