Colored Ice and Water in the Water Table

 

This was one of the activities that I set up for E to keep her busy while the moving company put up our furniture in our new house. 

I set out some colored ice and water on the patio for her along with some containers, a few toys and our water table, and let her decide what to do with it. The simple materials kept her busy for about 30 minutes before she became curious as to what the movers were doing behind her.

 

(E was 2 years and 8 months old.)

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To play with colored ice and water in the water table, you’ll need:

• Water.
• Liquid watercolors or food coloring. 
• Ice cube tray.
• Water table.
• Assorted containers.
• Assorted toys (optional). {I simply threw in the toys that came with the water table; E pretty much ignored them.}
  

 

 

 

Before I’d even taken the colored ice out of the freezer, E was already all over the water table and other items I’d put out for her.

 

 

 

When I brought out the bowl of colored ice, she was DELIGHTED.

 

 

Instead of using the water table, she decided to toss the colorful bits of ice into the larger water-filled bin.

 

 

In between tosses, she played with the water and watched the colors mix into it.

 

 

By the time the ice cubes had all been tossed into the water, it had turned a pretty shade of deep green – a nice change from the muddy brown we often get after all the colors have been mixed 😉

At that point, E decided to start fishing bits of ice out of the water

 

 

and tossing them into the water table instead. As they had already lost a lot of color in the water bin, they didn’t quite make the same impact in the water table.

 

 

But that didn’t bother E. She decided to fill her bottles with green water from the bin and dump them in the water table.

 

 

 

She asked for red water next, and I made her a bottle full with a few drops of liquid watercolors.

 

 

It didn’t really make a difference to the color of the green water, so she poured the rest into the upper compartment of the water table.

 

 

When the bottle was empty, she tried to let it float in the red water but quickly noticed that the bottle was too big for the compartment.

 

 

Again, not a problem – she switched the large bottle into the lower compartment, placed the smaller bottle into the upper compartment, and everything fit 🙂

 

 

 

 

Have you played with colored ice and water before? What’s your favorite sensory activity to keep your kids busy? Tell me in the comments!

 

 

 

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