We are continuing our study of the alphabet with the letter O. Â Orange juice was the drink of the day at snack time, so we saved up these little juice cartons to re-use the next day for our orange juice water play…
Our children love water play. Â We have water play in our outdoor classroom every day but indoors, we have hard tile floors which tend to get really slippery when wet. Â But that doesn’t stop us from enjoying water play – we just have to modify how we approach it and our children really do love it so much…
To make our sensory tub, we just took a large bin and filled it with warm water. Â We added some orange watercolors to make it look like orange juice. Â In case you are wondering, the orange water doesn’t stain hands and the watercolors are washable, just in case someone happens to get it on their clothes…
We threw in some sponges that we had cut up into small cubes, along with the juice cartons that we had rinsed out. Â We set all this on top of a metal tray with an edge to help contain any drips or spills. Â We also keep lots of towels close by to wipe up any water that may find its way onto the floor… Â
The children all found their way around the table and began playing in the “juice.” Â They would fill up the empty cartons and then pour them back out into the tub…
They would fill up the cartons and then pour them into another carton…
Water play activity is perfect for encouraging hand-eye coordination. Â And once your children have mastered pouring, you can let them take a shot at pouring their own drinks at snack time…
The children used the little sponge cubes for squeezing and experimenting with absorption.  They would squeeze them with their little fingers until  the last drops of water were out and then dip them back into the water and start the process all over again…
Some of the children stuffed the sponges into the juice boxes and then had to use their little pincer grasps to pull them out…
This went on and on for most of the morning. Â All of the children stopped and played in the orange juice tub. Â After awhile, some left, but almost all returned to take another turn at some point in the morning…
After all that water play, the children had worked up quite an appetite. Â Of course, no morning full of playing in an orange juice sensory bin would be complete without an orange snack…
Available on Amazon
Links to Grow On
Graphing and Painting with Oranges
Orange Cup Bird Feeders from Happy Hooligans