Aug. 10, 2009 at 11:28am
Exhibits 101: All Things Water
The best children's museums reflect their environment so when KidsQuest was being designed it was very important to have a strong water component. Not only is water an important part of living in the Pacific Northwest, but water play is an important part of a child's development.
The Waterways exhibit is one of the best ways to help your child develop their understanding of cause and effect, explore their imagination, work on hand-eye coordination and enhance social skills. It also provides great opportunities for children to learn about the world around them. In most cases, encouraging your child to engage in water play is an easy task because kids love wet and messy activities.
By playing with KidsQuest’s Waterways exhibit, children are learning:
You can also experience the world of water in your own home! Here are some everyday items that children enjoy playing with and provide opportunities to explore the properties of water.
The Waterways exhibit is one of the best ways to help your child develop their understanding of cause and effect, explore their imagination, work on hand-eye coordination and enhance social skills. It also provides great opportunities for children to learn about the world around them. In most cases, encouraging your child to engage in water play is an easy task because kids love wet and messy activities.
By playing with KidsQuest’s Waterways exhibit, children are learning:
- How to improve their skills at pouring by developing arm and hand muscles - there are different types of buttons in Waterways, so children have to use different amounts of pressure to activate the water.
- Water is powerful - this can be seen throughout the exhibit - making music by pushing a button or changing the flow of the stream by placing dams in different locations.
- How water feels and that it can be squirted - children love water and it's all around them. On occasion we have even seen children try and climb into the stream because they just can't get enough!
- That objects either float or sink - in the stream we have balls and boats that help children visualize the action of sinking and floating.
- Water engineering - the pipe table is a great way for children to experiment with changing flow and pressure by manipulating the water to move in different directions.
- The Locks and Dams portion of Waterways really gives kids the opportunity to see how boats can move from one place to the next. Have you been to the Ballard Locks? That is a great way to connect what your child is learning at KidsQuest with what happens when real boats go in and out of Puget Sound.
You can also experience the world of water in your own home! Here are some everyday items that children enjoy playing with and provide opportunities to explore the properties of water.
|
-colander |
-small watering can |
|
-strainer |
-funnel |
|
-old teapot |
-whisk |
|
-toy buckets |
-hollow ball |
|
-jugs and containers |
-plastic bottles |
|
-sponges |
-paint brushes |
Leave a Comment