Saving Water Fine Motor Experiment

Water conservation is one of the most kid friendly examples of reducing that you can teach. Bentley and I had a rare afternoon alone this week, and I was able to really focus in with him and have some meaningful discussions about our unit study - Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.

Mother Goose Time had some great activities planned for this day, but our favorite was the "Save Water" play dough Investigation Station. I just love MGT's Investigation Station's because they allow a hands on way for little ones to explore the concepts at hand.

All we needed for this station was a colander, some water, a pouring apparatus (we used a cup from the amazing Learning Resources Mix and Measure Activity set which is literally a homeschooling MUST HAVE!), and some play dough (we invest in this mega pack every year!). I clearly had Bentley had "play dough"! He is a total sensory kiddo, and any opportunity he has to sink his hands in some dough (this translates to cooking too!), sand (especially kinetic!), or any sensory bin filler - he is IN! 

We started by discussing different ways that we could save water. Bentley mentioned "turning the hose off", "not running the bath for long", and "fixing Papa's pool so there is no leak" (true story! He pays attention!) We talked about the reasons why it is important that we save water, and what we could do to help. Then it was time for our experiment! 

One of the things I like about Mother Goose Time's "station" prompts, is that a lot of them are pretty open ended. It didn't tell us what the colander was supposed to represent, so we were able to use our imagination. I told Bentley that our bowl had lots of leaks and that we needed to use our play dough to plug them up! Plumber Bentley was on the case. He exercised his fine motor skill as he pressed the play dough into each of the holes to stop it up. 

He was so focused and concentrated as he worked! When he had covered every hole, it was the moment of truth. We flipped it back over and placed it inside a glass bowl. Then Benny slowly poured the water into the colander. We observed to see just how much water the play dough could hold. 

It held well for about half of the cup, but then he dumped the rest in and it leaked through. This led to a discussion about more appropriate ways to stop leaks. Bentley said that we needed "cement" instead of dough! This activity was so out of the box, and it really helped put into perspective the concept of saving water for B. Through the process of plugging the holes, we were able to have meaningful discussions about the importance of reducing our water usage!

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As a Mother Goose Time Blog Ambassador, I receive Mother Goose Time curriculum in exchange for my honest and authentic stories resulting from our personal experiences. All opinions/thoughts are my own and are in no way influenced by others.

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