early learning

With summer almost in full swing, what better way to practice those ABC’s than with some fun water games? Not only are they educational, but it gets the kids out of the house too. We have a small inflatable pool that sits on our deck and it’s where the boys play most of their water games. So I have put together a list of our favorite water games that I hope you will enjoy. Fishing for Letters – This game can be played in many ways with many different tools. We have little polls from a math fishing game that we use to grab our letters. But you can get creative and use lots of different things to fish with. Letter Boat Matching – we haven’t played this one yet but I am gathering all the stuff to do it! This looks like so much fun and there are so many variations you can do with this. Word families for older kids (put the letter on the noodle and word family on the flag), even some math with these would be fun (answer on noodle, problem on flag). Water Balloon Phonics – with this game you could use the pool noodles from the Letter Boat game that already have the letters on them. Use those noodles to line up on the ground or tack to the fence, wherever you choose, and then throw the balloons. Half your game is already made! Foam Block Pool Spelling – this can be done with foam blocks or pool noodles. We also use our letter tiles and bottle cap letters for this. Sometimes I will use heavier items with letters on them so the boys can swim around with their goggles and look for the letters. What I do is call out the word several times, have them tell me what it starts with, then they find that letter and the other letters to spell it. It’s good to give them a tray of some sort for placing their letters as they find them. Letter Bowling – this water game could be turned into a fun ABC game. Take water bottles and write the letters on them, then have the kids identify the ones they knock down. You could also write word families on them and have the kids match the ones they knock down to the letters, making words. Lots of possibilities and endless fun! Giant Ice Cube Fun – My boys love doing this! Freeze your letters in it and make words as they get them out or identify the letter they break away. Alphabet Game with Water Balloons – She matches letters to objects with each one inside a balloon. You can do the entire alphabet this way but it will take a while. If you have a something square or round with pictures on it, those would be much easier to insert into the balloons. Water Balloon Sight Words – throwing water balloons into hula hoops, what fun! Squirt the Letter Alphabet Activity – this can be done with words, numbers…….all sorts of things. Water Balloon Piñata – you can write the letters or words on the balloons and have the kids hit the ones you call out or have them identify it before they can hit. Here are a few more great water activities that look like lots of fun. Water the Flowers Alphabet Activity Frog Pond Alphabet Activity Alphabet Ping Pong Water Games Swimming Pool Scrabble I hope you have enjoyed this Top Ten Tuesday post and have a summer full of learning fun.