Easy Water Activities for Kids

With bottled waves, you can watch the waves without having to leave your home. When you make a sea-in-a-bottle, you'll have an easy kids' activity that brings the waves to you.

What You'll Need:

How to Make Bottled Waves:

Many people are soothed by the sight and sound of ocean waves. Here's how to really make waves!

Step 1: Fill a large plastic bottle 2/3 full of water. Add blue food coloring to the water and mix it up.

Step 2: Fill the rest of the bottle with mineral oil, so there's no room for air. Then put the top on the bottle.

Step 3: Lay the bottle on its side. Watch as the mineral oil floats to the top. To make waves in your sea, tilt the bottle back and forth. You can imagine you're at the beach or sailing on the ocean.

No magnifying glass? No problem! Just make your own in the next easy water activity.

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This water magnifier activity proves how versatile water is. One well-known quality of water is that it makes things wet. But did you know that water also makes things look larger than they really are? Water gets magnified in this easy kids' activity.

What You'll Need:

How to Make a Water Magnifier:

Step 1: Get a small piece of clear glass or plastic. (A microscope slide is ideal.) Always be careful when handling glass. Put the slide on top of a piece of newspaper that has small print on it.

Step 2: Use a crayon to draw a small circle on the slide. Look closely at the print that is within the circle.

Step 3: With an eyedropper, carefully put a drop of water in the circle. Now look at the print again. Does it look larger? This is because the water drop bends rays of light, magnifying the image.

See what other shapes and forms water can pull off in the next easy activity.

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In this easy water activity, kids can see water in three states. Water doesn't just come in one shape. Depending on its temperature, water can be solid, liquid, or steam. See them all in this easy activity.

What You'll Need:

How to See Water in Three States:

To see all three states, put some ice in a pan. Put the pan on the stove and turn on the heat.

First the ice will begin turning to liquid, then the liquid will begin turning to steam. Ice and snow melt at 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius) and water turns into steam at 212 degrees Fahrenheit (100 degrees Celsius).

Discover what other miraculous things water can do in the next kids' activity.

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Sticky water tension is for those who have ever wondered how high can you really fill a glass with water. This experiment will demonstrate to kids the power of surface tension, all in one easy activity.

What You'll Need:

How to Do Sticky Water Tension:

Fill a glass to the very top with water. Then use an eyedropper to add water, very gently, one drop at a time.

You'll see that you can add drops until the water level is actually above the rim of the glass! How is this possible?

Here's the explanation: The water molecules are attracted to one another, but not to air molecules. So, as long as they possibly can, the water molecules will stick together in the glass, rather than falling over the edge of the glass.

This tendency of water molecules to stick together is called "surface tension." A surface tension gives water the appearance of having a "skin" across the top of the glass.

This is also why small droplets of water stay in a round shape rather than spreading out in all directions.

Water goes head-to-head with oil in the next easy water activity.

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This liquid layers activity proves that all liquids aren't the same. We all know that rocks are heavier than feathers. But which is lighter -- water or oil? Kids can see which liquid is the heavyweight champion in this easy activity.

What You'll Need:

How to Make Liquid Layers:

Put some water in your jar and color it with food coloring. Now slowly pour in some vegetable oil. Put the lid on the jar and shake it. Let the liquids settle.

What happens? The word "density" refers to how closely packed the molecules are. The higher the density, the heavier it is.

Which liquid has the highest density? Frozen water is less dense than its liquid form. That is why ice floats on top of water! The density of our bodies is very close to that of water -- or else we wouldn't be able to float in a swimming pool.

Slow the melting process in the next easy water activity.

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"Slow Melt" is an easy water activity where you can watch an ice cube practically saying "I'm m-e-l-t-i-n-g!" Kids who do this easy activity can watch time stand still as an ice cube melts in slow motion.

What You'll Need:

How to Do Slow Melt:

Fill a drinking glass with vegetable oil. Now drop an ice cube into the oil.

As the ice melts, you will be able to see the droplets form and fall in slow motion. The droplets fall this way because water has a higher density than oil.

To learn more about water activities, keep reading. Talented water can sing, as the next easy water activity shows.

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Learn how to make water music in Liquid Melodies. You may have noticed all the different sounds that water makes. This easy activity for kids creates a symphony of water.

What You'll Need:

How to Make Liquid Melodies:

Go around your house and yard, and see how many different sounds you can make with water. Try the faucets, from barely on to full blast. Listen to the shower, the hose, the sprinkler.

Drop ice cubes into a glass of water. Any other ideas? Now think of water sounds in nature: a soft rain, a hard rain, waves, a waterfall. It's a regular symphony, isn't it?

Speaking of a symphony, here's one way to make music with water. Gather several glass bottles, jars, and/or drinking glasses of different shapes and sizes. (Always be careful when handling glass.)

Put water in them -- a little water or a lot. Use a spoon or a small stick to tap the containers, and see what different notes they make.

Can you arrange the containers from lowest note to highest note? Can you change the level of water in the containers to create new notes? How about making up a song to play on your water instruments?

Make your own cloud in the next easy water activity.

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Make a cloud in a bottle in an easy water activity that takes two steps. Whether it's a rainy or sunny day, kids can bring a part of the sky inside.

What You'll Need:

How to Make a Cloud in a Bottle:

Step 1: Hold a narrow-mouthed bottle over a candle flame for a few seconds. Then blow out the candle.

Step 2: Wipe the rim of the bottle and quickly blow into it. The warm moisture in your breath will condense and turn into a "cloud" in the bottle.

Another easy water activity that tests the tension between air and water is next.

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Test the pressure between air and water in "Feeling Pressured?" You may not feel it, but the air around you has pressure. This easy activity for kids will help demonstrate its invisible force.

What You'll Need:

How to Do Feeling Pressured?:

Step 1: Fill a cup all the way to the top with water. Place an index card over the top of the cup.

Step 2: Hold the card in place, and turn the cup upside down. Slowly, carefully, let go of the index card. It should stay in place, held by the pressure of the air beneath it. Be sure to work over a sink in case your cup slips and the water spills.

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