Pom Pom Squeeze Water Play - Fantastic Fun & Learning

During the snowball and rainbow pom water play activities we’ve done recently I noticed how much Tinker loved simply squeezing the pom poms. One day I set out a very simple and easy to prep invitation for her to squeeze to her heart’s content, and did she ever! This activity is a great boredom buster when you did something quick to occupy your kids. It’s also excellent fine motor practice for toddlers and preschoolers.

Materials

Pom poms in an assortment of sizes
Large container of water
Smaller empty containers

Tinker started by filling up the large container of water with pom poms, and she spent some time to observe them as they absorbed water.

Then she started squeezing. She chose to try and fill one container at a time, so she worked hard to squeeze as much water as she could into the container. As she did she experimented with squeezing one pom pom at a time and then large handfuls of pom poms.

She also tried to see how high she could hold her arms as she squished the water out and still get water into the container. (Yes, a lot of water did end up on the floor, so provide a towel to make clean up easier and prevent slipping.)

We were using tall containers, so it did take some time for her to get the water close to the top. As she did her excitement grew and grew…

…until she finally filled the whole container!

And the celebration at the end was priceless! She was so proud of herself! (and yes, I’m sure she’ll be thrilled I shared this picture in about 10 years…heehee)

After celebrating she continued working to fill all the containers with water, but this time she had a different goal. She was making lemonade, and so begin a new adventure into pretend play.

You never know exactly where a play invitation will lead, but it’s always somewhere full of learning when the child takes the lead!