An Active for Life article explores the value of water play as a “fun way to develop motor skills through discovery and exploration” and offers a simple way to create your own water table at home. 

Building your own water table at home can be a great way for young children to cool off and work on fine motor skills at the same time, writes Sarah Parker in an article for Active for Life. 

Whilst water tables can be purchased, it is easy to make your own with a big rubber bin and some water. The article notes that “if you want it to be at standing height, this DIY version—created using PVC piping and a rubber bin—works too”. Water table activities, like pouring, squirting, scrubbing, stirring and squeezing, help develop fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. 

Water play engages exploration of: 

• Cause and Effect: What happens if I tip the cup or splash something? Does it sink? Does it float? 

• Problem Solving: Why things happen (e. g. tipping the cup means the water pours out; to keep the water in the cup it has to be held upright). 

• Emotional control: Scooping and pouring water can be very calming. 

• Language skills: 

• Math words: counting, measuring, etc. 

• Scientific words: float, sink, etc. 

• Asking and answering questions 

• Imaginative play: pretending scenarios such as boats in a harbour, car wash, rainy day, etc. 

The article offers a number of suggestions for household items that are great for water play: 

• Beach toys, such as buckets, shovels, sieves 

• Plastic cups 

• Empty yogurt containers, or different-sized containers from other food products 

• Empty shampoo bottles 

• Squirt toys, such as small plastic animal bath toys 

• Small plastic balls 

• Small rocks or pebbles 

• Measuring cups 

• A colander 

• A funnel 

• Plastic utensils 

• Straws 

• Spray bottles 

• A watering can 

Other ideas can include: 

• Sponges 

• Bubbles 

• Ice cubes coloured with food dye 

• A small net on a stick to use for ‘fishing’ 

For toddlers, a rectangular plastic food container on top of a towel on a tray or a washable child-height table, with a cup or so of water, some plastic toys (interlocking blocks, stacking rings, see through plastic cubes with moveable parts inside, etc.). And for those toddlers who hate baths, water tables can be an attractive option to encourage engagement with water.