Outdoor Classroom Ideas - Water Play

Water is a rich sensory experience for children, engaging all five senses. Water play in an outdoor classroom encourages children to ask questions, make predictions and experiment as they pour, measure and mix water.

We’ve designed wooden water tables at different levels with geisers in the ground, and we’ve designed a bike path with water features incorporated in and around it, which allowed the facility to still use the bike path once the season changed and it wasn’t possible to use the water features any longer. When the water features are turned on in the summer, the children can ride their bikes and trikes through a “car wash” and use their imaginations. When the teachers turn the water off during the colder months, it provides another opportunity for meaningful conversation: “why doesn’t it work in the winter?”

Adding bucket fillers to an outdoor classroom kitchen transforms "just a kitchen" into the coveted mud kitchen where magic potions, chocolate milk and mud muffins can be served.

On hot summer days, strategically located misters provide a gentle way to keep those rosy little cheeks at a safe and healthy level of rosy, not red.

Learning and cooling aside, water is fun and enjoyable for everyone - educators included.