Water Fun!
By: Karen Burns
Many settings have small, shallow pools which they can use in the hotter summer months.
Some of the children will already be water babies, but others may be very reluctant and unsure. Here are
some ideas to help them gain water confidence.
Make everything lots of fun, allow children to just watch at first if they are reluctant - hopefully if they see
others having fun they will eventually join in.
Use familiar nursery rhymes and songs adapted to the water:
• Ring a Ring o’ Roses – Confident children may be happy to go
under water for “we all fall down”, others will be happier just
smacking their hands down onto the water. Don’t forget the
“fishes in the water” verse – hands together, swishing about in
the water then jump up on the count of 3.
• It’s Raining
It’s raining, it’s pouring
The old man is snoring
He went to bed and bumped his head
And couldn’t get up in the morning.
All the way through this short rhyme encourage the children to
lift the water up with their hands and let it rain - as they get more
confident they can throw the water higher and higher.
• The Wheels on the Bus – use 2 noodles lying parallel to each
other on the surface of the water to create a ‘bus’. The child or
children stand in between both noodles and hold on – this gives
them lots of confidence. You are the ‘driver’ and hold both ends
facing the children (you will be moving backwards).
Use the first verse as usual and just have the children walk forward.
Then change the words in the song to always being ‘the children in the bus….’
Eg. Children on the bus jump up and down
Children on the bus run as fast as they can
Children on the bus are lazy lumps (ask children to lift up their feet so you are pulling them
along – some will be happy to do this, others may take some time.)
Children on the bus go in reverse
Children take the bus back to the station (I always use this to get the children back to the side.)