Preschool Lesson Plan: Fun and Educational  Water Play

This Water Play Preschool Lesson Plan is designed for preschoolers to explore the properties of water during dynamic, play-based experiences. Children will note observations of sinking and floating, color mixing, and sensory exploration while building fine motor skills, curiosity, and early science cognition.

Three main activities make up the lesson:

• Sinking and Floating Experiment: Children make predictions regarding which objects sink or float and learn about buoyancy and density.
• Mixing Colored Water: Kids mix primary-colored water with eyedroppers to create new colors, enhancing creativity and fine motor skills.
• Water Table or Bucket Play: Solo sensory play with spoons, cups, and toys encourages imaginative play and experimentation with pouring and splashing.

Objective: Explore the characteristics of water through experimentation.

Lesson Overview

Children will engage in sensory play and simple experiments to learn how water behaves, such as the concepts of sinking, floating, and mixing. This lesson encourages curiosity, fine motor skills, and early scientific thinking.

Materials Needed

• Water
• Containers (buckets, bowls, or water tables)
• Eyedroppers or pipettes
• Food coloring (red, blue, yellow)
• Small objects for sinking/floating (e.g., toy boats, corks, coins, plastic toys, sponges, stones)
• Towels or aprons for wiping

Activities

1. Sinking and Floating Experiment
   • Objective: Test buoyancy and predict what objects will sink or float.
     • Fill the water table or big tub with water.
     • Provide a variety of small objects (e.g., toy boats, corks, coins, plastic playthings, sponges, rocks).
     • Ask the children to guess if each object will sink or float before placing it in the water.
     • Explain why some objects float (light, have air trapped) and others sink (heavy, dense).
2. Mixing Colored Water Using Eyedroppers
   • Goal: To develop color mixing and hand skills.
     • Prepare mini cups with water and a few drops of food coloring in each (red, blue, yellow).
     • Provide eyedroppers or pipettes and empty cups for mixing.
     • Ask children to use the eyedroppers to take up and mix colored water and observe how new colors are made (e.g., red + blue = purple).
     • Ask questions like, “What color is the mixture when you mix red and yellow?”
3. Water Table or Bucket Play
   • Objective: Engage in sensory exploration and fantasy play.
     • Set up a water table or buckets with water and provide cups, spoons, funnels, and other pouring devices.
     • Provide an open environment for children to experiment freely pouring, scooping, and splashing.
     • Encourage fantasy play by adding toy boats, plastic animals, or other water toys.

Discussion Questions

• What happens when you put the object in the water? Is it a sinker or a floater?
• What are some colors you can make by mixing two colors?
• What happens when you pour water from one container to another?

Cleanup

• Get children to help clean up spills and dry out the materials.
• Dry clothes during play using towels or aprons.

Extensions

• Put ice cubes in the water table to test melting.
• Put soap bubbles in for added sensory play.
• Read a book related to water, like Water is Water by Miranda Paul.

This lesson plan provides a fun, hands-on way for preschoolers to explore the properties of water while developing fine motor skills, scientific thinking, and creativity!

Download the Preschool Lesson Plan