Early development is an important time for physical, social and emotional growth for children. Learning new things happens every day and there are plenty of ways that you can help them learn and grow. One fun way is through sand and water play, which assists development in many different ways, from physical to emotional.
And, as you’d expect, it’s a chance for children to have fun and get messy!
Sand and water play is essentially how it sounds, playing with water and sand, either together or separately, with hands or whole bodies (depending on how large you make the play area).
Here’s a few benefits of sand and water play:
Develops hand-eye coordination
Playing with water and sand will increase fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination through actions like pouring, squirting, scrubbing, stirring and squeezing.
Develops sensory acknowledgement
Water and sand offer different textural and temperature experiences, helping children acknowledge sensory changes and respond to them.
It also allows them to play with different substances and make discoveries about them, ie, dry sand is grainy and wet sand will stick to them.
Develops social skills
Playing in a social setting like at kindy is the perfect environment for children to develop social skills. As children play together with sand and water, it encourages role play and skills like cooperation and sharing.
And as it can release energy, sand and water play can be both invigorating or relaxing and calming for young children.
Develops science and mathematical learning
Watching and playing with sand and water introduces children to simple science and mathematical concepts, like learning terms such as Full, Empty, Half, Less. It also allows them to play with measurement, compare volumes and observe motion.
Not only that but it helps to develop creative thinking, imagination and problem solving.
Important Notes About Sand and Water Play
There are many ways you can play with sand and water at home and at kindy, but there’s a few important notes:
If your kids go out to play and return looking muddy, or regularly come home from school filthy from head to toe, chances are they have been very busy playing with sand and water.
Children gravitate towards messy play for good reason – it’s so fun and a great sensory experience.
The good news is that sand and water play is a wonderfully educational experience and you should encourage kids to pull up their sleeves and experience it as often as possible.
Sand and water play is an activity where children play freely with either sand or water – or both – in a sandpit, water table or other container.
It often includes using props and tools such as mini spades, funnels, cups, plastic toys, sieves, etc.
Sand play can take the form of anything from digging in a garden bed with a spoon to building mud pies with special soft sand, water and tools in a sandpit (my toddler always preferred a real garden bed!)
Water play can happen at a special sand and water play table with floating boats and spinning water wheels, in a large trough with water and kitchen utensils, or while playing in the bath!
As these are both sensory play activities that often happen outdoors, children love to mix sand and water together.
To reap the real benefits, water and sand play should be completely child-led and free. Adults can provide props and change them regularly to encourage kids to try new ways of playing, but the activity does not need to be guided in any way.
There are so many ways that sand and water play helps a child’s development. Kids are always learning through play and picking up a multitude of skills while they explore and discover things.
Here are 10 of the benefits of sand and water play:
Movements such as squeezing, scooping and moulding sand are great exercises for the finger muscles and will build fine motor control.
Children also strengthen their muscles and build control while handling tools such as watering cans, rakes, shovels, etc.
Fine motor skills are important for being able to write when kids are older.
Larger movements – such as digging with a spade on the beach or handling a large watering can – also develop gross motor skills.
Playing with water and sand can be a really satisfying activity and one that children will happily get involved in on their own. It can encourage independent play because it doesn’t require any adult guidance.
At the same time, water and sand play activities can also boost social skills if children are playing together.
They may simply be chatting or learning skills such as sharing a space, sharing tools or working together to build something. Perhaps they are splitting tasks: one child slowly pours water into the container with sand while the other child mixes it and decides when there is enough water.
Any time children are playing together, they are collaborating and learning social behaviours.
Any activity that holds a child’s attention for a period of time can aid towards developing their attention span.
Being able to concentrate is vital throughout schooling.
When kids have a blank canvas to work with, they are able to get the creative juices flowing.
They build creativity as they use their imagination to play with the two substances. They may be making mud cakes for a birthday party, riding toy cars over the mountains in the sand, or watching stones sink to the bottom of the ocean in the water table.
Problem solving ties in closely with creativity and is a crucial skill to start developing in early childhood. It will be used throughout life.
A child may need to use their problem-solving skills to get the right ratio of sand to water so their pie doesn’t fall to pieces, or figure out what vessel to use to transfer water into the bottle that has a small spout.
Playing with water or sand often lends itself to engaging in fantasy play, also called pretend play.
A mud kitchen is a perfect example of how sand and water can be used to stimulate play. Kids mix sand and water together in their pots and pans to make pretend “soups” and other dishes.
All types of play are essential for a child’s holistic development.
Learning about science starts during play long before it is presented in a classroom. The sandpit or water table is the perfect place for scientific concepts to be discovered in a practical way.
Children learn about:
And lots more!
Last but not least, playing outdoors in the mud is also a great way to learn early maths skills.
Making one “cupcake” for each person in the group is a far better way to learn one-to-one correspondence than memorizing numbers or rote counting.
The opportunities are endless: perhaps one child joins the group and kids learn the concept of “one more”; two children build roads in the sand and one is “longer” or “shorter” than the other; or capacity is discovered as the water is moved from container to container.
Here are just a few examples of how kids can engage in this kind of play with various materials and tools:
There are many, many simple ways kids can play with water or sand. Let them discover some of these for themselves or encourage them by changing up the props and tools every now and then.
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