15 Water Sensory Table Activities

Awesome indoor water table play is at your fingertips! When the weather gets too cold for all the great outdoor activities you have been doing, don’t pack your water table up for the season just yet. There is plenty of sensory play that can be had if you bring it inside.

Indoor Water Table Activities

Sensory Play With A Water Table

I know you are thinking about all the mess and the reason why the water table was meant for the great outdoors! I am here to show you, you might just be wrong!

I specifically chose these awesome indoor water table ideas, as well as a couple of our own, to show you that others have braved the mess and brought their water table inside. Water tables are good for small worlds play, science experiments, and early learning ideas.

Sensory play has so many benefits for young kids. These water table activities below make for awesome hands-on fun and learning for young children, as they explore and discover more about the world through their senses! Even add them to your preschool activities.

Water tables are suited for all ages with plenty of supervision for the younger kiddos. Toddlers especially love sensory play but please make sure to provide only appropriate materials and watch for putting items in the mouth.

Looking for a water table? We like this one.. STEP 2 Water Table

What do you put in a water sensory table?

There are some pretty cool ideas you will find below! You can do just about anything you want with a repurposed water table. I love how the sections in a water table create unique play areas.

I love to use what I have around the house to add to our water table play which makes this a super frugal idea. Similar to what I use in our sensory bins, toy animals, scoops, tongs, ice cube trays, plastic bottles or cups etc. You could also add in sensory bin fillers like rice, water beads, beans, aquarium rocks or sand.

Handling the Mess! What Should I do? 

Sometimes you need to embrace a little mess, but I have some thoughts on how to handle the mess of an indoor water table.

Ultimately a little mess is bound to happen as accidents do happen. We still have them here. However accidents are much different that purposefully making a mess when it is not encouraged (such as body painting outdoors or in the bath tub!)

A Few Suggestions:

• Model appropriate or desired play behavior with sensory bins.
• Set expectations and follow through for throwing items and remove if necessary.
• Teach respect for a sensory bin as you would a toy. You would not expect your child to throw a puzzle all around the room would you?
• Place a sheet under the sensory bin for easy clean up and to protect floors if necessary.
• Similarly, dress your child in appropriate play clothes.
• Teach clean up skills as part of the sensory bin play.
• Supervise your children and be a part of the process.

Water Table Activities

Here is our list of fun repurposed water sensory table ideas for you to try indoors. An water table activities are great for rainy day play or when the weather gets too hot. No matter what season you are in or what your climate is like, a water sensory table will definitely be a hit!

Use a water table to create a Pumpkin Theme Small World.

Add sand and shells to a water table for a Beach Small World.

Set up a wonderful and simple water table exploring the 5 senses.

Use the water table for this fun Fizzing Koolaid Experiment.

Put together a Pumpkin Science Table and let your preschooler explore.

Fill a table with Sand and sequins for an exciting digging experience.

Add a batch of no cook playdough and a few play accessories.

Enjoy a water sensory table with homemade cloud dough or kinetic sand.

Fill your water table with beans and create a dried bean sensory table.

Add all kinds of beads for an easy bead water sensory table.

Explore magnets with a magnet discovery table.

Add a fun slime and dinosaur toys for a dinosaur small world play.

Choose one or several of these rice sensory bin ideas.

Enjoy Sensory Play With Indoor Water Table

Click on the image below or on the link for tons more sensory play ideas.