I decided to repeat this activity from the childminding group this week as it had been so popular. We hadn’t planned on doing it this way. The idea at the group had been to provide some rice for the children to colour themselves, but as we set up the activity, the children became engrossed with mixing the rice and the water, so we supported this interest and decided to delay colour mixing until next week.
So back home I added rice to the water tray alongside containers and sieves. I only had rice that I had previously coloured, which caused a bit of a problem. As the rice mixed with the water, the water went a horrible green colour which wasn’t particularly appealing, so I mixed in a bit of blue food colouring.
Adding rice to the water tray added a whole new element to play.
The children scooped the rice and used the sieves to separate the rice from the water.
Scooping and pouring.
Filling and emptying.
The children noticed that the rice sunk to the bottom of the containers.
All the activity attracted the attention of the little ones, who copied what they observed the older children doing.
Reaching into the water to scoop the rice.
At some point someone added the water wheel to the tray.
This created the opportunity for some problem-solving when we found that the water had stopped flowing through the wheel, because of the rice.
Using the spoon to transfer the rice to the sieve….
…and then opting for a quicker method.
Noticing the numbers on the jug.
Hmmm not good to tip towards yourself….
…as you are likely to get wet!
Ah well on a nice hot day, it’s quite nice to get wet!
I notice little ones doing this alot in their play if they have more than one container of the same resource. They like to dip their fingers in each container, as though comparing whether the two containers, because they contain the same resource, feel the same.
I was surprised by the interest created in the children by adding rice to the water tray and will be looking for other things to add!
Even with a tray full of water, these two happily shared a small bucket!
