Water Wall

Inspired by the water walls on my two current favourite blogs Play-based Learning and Teacher Tom ( http://www.playbasedlearning.com.au/2010/05/make-it-irresistible-with-a-water-wall/ and http://teachertomsblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/water-wall-extension-and-home-made.html ) I decided to have a go at creating my own.  I didn't think my hubbie would go much on me drilling holes in the garden fence so enlisted his help in creating something that I could attach my water wall too.  He kindly made me four of these panels (total cost for all four, under £15 bargain!).
(picture to be added)
We used cable ties to attach various bottles and containers, some with holes made in them to create different effects with the water.  Eventually we ended up with this.

Then I just had to wait for the children to arrive after the bank holiday weekend.............
Okay so it wasn't an instant hit.  To be honest they all completely ignored it (I don't think they could work out what on earth it was).  Not wanting to 'force' them to play, I began to play with it myself which soon attracted their interest and so began over half an hour of continual exploration of the wall.  I used coloured water to enable the children to more easily see it as it travelled through the tubes and positioned a large tray at the bottom in a bid to catch the majority of the water so it could be recycled.

I purposely positioned some of the top containers out of the children's reach as it gave the opportunity to problem-solve as to how to reach them as well as practising their balancing skills!.  The central top container did need to be re-positioned slightly lower down though as this proved to be just to tricky to reach.

I also added bottle tops to several of the containers to give the children some control over the flow of the water.  These required pushing, pulling or twisting to open - plenty of practice for small motor development.

It's been very popular for the last 2 days.

Of course it couldn't compete with jumping in puddles though!

Possible links to EYFS:

CLL: Language for Thinking - Where children use talk to think things through / explain what they are doing / reflect on what has happened.

KUW: Exploration and Investigation - Where children show curiosity in how the water wall works / show curiosity or an understanding that the aspects of the wall control the flow of the water