15 Favorite Preschool Water Activities

Inside: Preschool water activities are a favorite all year long. Thank goodness there are so many different ways of playing with it. We’ve collected 15 favorites that encourage hands-on learning!

Preschoolers love water.

Give them a tub of water and a cup and they will fill and pour water over and over again.

So why not add on to this with some fun hands-on learning? I’ve put together a variety preschool water activities. Activities that allow them to:

• Feel
• Squeeze
• Pour
• Poke
• Explore

These activities can be done year round, in the classroom or at home. With one child or many children. (Perfect for play dates!)

And they are easy. We like that!

15 Favorite Preschool Water Activities

CLICK HERE for more water ideas!

Color Sorting: This activity not only builds color recognition skills, but fine motor, too!

Water Squeezing: Have you ever used turkey basters in your water table? This is a favorite with our preschoolers! (Our toddlers love it, too.)

Transferring Water: Once young children can master turkey basters, they are ready for pipettes. This fine motor activity is also nice for calming down energetic children.

Washing with Water: Add small sponges to soapy water, along with some favorite toys to wash. In this particular activity, we used our collection of rubber ducks.

Kitchen Water Xylophone: Fill jars with various amounts of water and notice how different they sound. (Sugar, Spice and Glitter)

Leak-Proof Bag: Stick pencils through a plastic bag filled with water and it won’t leak! (Paging Fun Mums)

Keeping Paper Dry Science Activity: This water science idea will be like magic to preschoolers! (Edited 5/24: Unfortunately the link to this activity has expired. 😢)

Pool Noodle Boat Fun: What a fun idea to use cut pieces of pool noodles as boats for the water table! (FSPDT)

Floating Chalk Prints: Wonder what happens when you shave colored chalk and add it to a pan of water? And then place a piece of paper on top? Try this activity and find out! (Picklebums)

Water Wall: You can make a homemade water wall for the backyard that your children will love! (Little Bins for Little Hands)

Bottle Caps and Water: Fill caps with water using pipettes. Another fun way to work on those fine motor skills! (Fantastic Fun and Learning)

Sink or Float: Collect items from nature and see which ones sink and float. (Laughing Kids Learn)

Experiment with the Changing Shape of Water: Find out what happens when water is poured into different shaped containers. (Stir the Wonder)

How Many Drops of Water Fit on One Penny: This activity will add some fun STEM into your day! (Edited 5/24: Unfortunately this link has expired.)

 More fun ideas for preschoolers:

Outdoor Art Activities

Nature Activities

Fun Summer Activities

Summer Activity Plans

I’ve teamed up with other early childhood teachers and homeschoolers to put together these hands-on summer activities for toddlers and preschoolers!

Easy to follow plans that include activity modifications and adaptations to meet the needs of all learners.

For more information, click on the graphics below: