Washing may seem a mundane and tedious activity to adults, but to young children it is enormous fun. The children in our setting love washing all sorts of things, and learn so much from the experience that we now make washing a regular activity, both indoors and outdoors.
Learning
We find that washing:
* is a very sociable activity
* is equally popular with boys and girls
* is very involving and helps children concentrate for long periods of time
* encourages older children to work co-operatively and share tasks and materials
* develops children's hand-eye co-ordination
* builds up strength in the muscles of children's arms and hands
* provides opportunities for children to investigate the effects of water on different materials, such as plastic, metal, wood, concrete, bricks and cloth
* enables children to explore the absorption of different materials, such as wool and cotton
* creates puddles and streams of water, which in turn offer opportunities for investigating the properties of water
* encourages children to take care of and responsibility for toys, resources and equipment in the setting
* outdoors in warmer weather is especially good fun for everyone involved.
We hope to have an outside tap fitted soon, which together with a hosepipe will create even more potential for washing and other water activities outdoors.
Resources
We provide:
* water trays, washing-up bowls and baby baths or builders' trays, to hold the water
* a plastic apron for each child
* washing-up liquid, hand soap, soap flakes or washing powders, to create warm soapy water
* a variety of sponges, dishcloths and flannels
* cleaning brushes of varying shapes and sizes from large scrubbing brushes to toothbrushes
* plenty of towels, which the children often need to dry themselves after the activities!
Safety
We take care to ensure that all the washing activities are carefully supervised for obvious safety reasons but also because, from our experience, some younger children can become over-enthusiastic and will wash anything and everything - books, themselves, others, coats and jumpers that were hanging on coat pegs, walls, windows, floors. On one occasion we managed to rescue the class register from a good soaking just in the nick of time!
We also check if any child is allergic to any kind of soap or washing product.
Activities
Sand and water play Usually on a Friday, we add washing-up liquid to the water in the water tray, and our children enjoy washing the sand and water play equipment that has been used that week. At the end of the day the items are placed on towels and left to dry over the weekend. On Monday morning the items are put away and replaced with the equipment needed for that week's activities and learning opportunities.
Dishes We regularly provide pots, pans, cups, plates and cutlery from the home corner for the children to wash. They use tea towels to dry the items before they are returned to the home corner or put away if different resources are to be introduced.
Clothes Children always enjoy washing clothes, including dolls' clothes and clothes from the dressing-up trolley. When the weather is fine, we set up a washing line in the outdoor area and encourage the children to peg up the clothes to dry.
Dolls We regularly provide opportunities for children to wash our dolls, using towels to dry them. 'Bathable' dolls include newborn baby dolls (11.95 each) and 'Just Born Twin Sets' (15.95 for a set of two) from Hope.
Painting The tables and chairs in our creative area sometimes end up splattered with paint after some of our more energetic painting activities.
Staff used to spend a great deal of precious time cleaning these, but now find that there is no shortage of children who volunteer to help with cleaning. Our children are also always keen to wash paint pots and brushes and scrub the paint from plastic aprons.
Equipment Our children regularly wash small resources such as small-world toys and large equipment such as the climbing frame, outdoor construction equipment and plastic barrels. They wash the bikes, scooters and cars with soapy water, then use watering cans of clean water to rinse off the soap.
They also really enjoy scrubbing walls and areas on the ground and cleaning the playhouse, inside and out.
Denise Bailey is a nursery teacher at Annesley Primary School, Nottingham