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Home / Early Learning / Sensory / Water Fun for Kids: Workin’ at the Car Wash

Water Fun for Kids: Workin’ at the Car Wash

Shared by Mary Catherine 6 Comments

Be sure to include water fun for kids to your list of super fun summer activities for preschoolers! Summer, kids, and water? That’s a formula for fun! Add to that some soap, sponges, bikes, and a dirty minivan, and you have tons of water fun for kids!  At a recent summer camp, we set up a car wash for the kiddos!  Needless to say, hours of fun ensued.

Water Fun for Kids: Workin' at the Car Wash

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To start off, we set up a tent with lowered legs for the children.  To liven it up, strips of a cut-up plastic tablecloth were added along the edges.  The children could bring bikes into the “bike wash” and scrub them clean.  This entertained them for a little while, and then they decided that riding the bikes through the tent was more fun.

Water Fun for Kids: Workin' at the Car Wash

While the kids had fun washing the bikes, they were beyond excited to wash my minivan.  I think it was having a real car to wash that did it for them.  All we needed for this was a dirty car (mine!), water, sponges, and some soap.  They spent close to two hours scrubbing at my van, rinsing it off, scrubbing it again, and rinsing it back off.  The bottom half of my car was incredibly clean after this!

Water Fun for Kids: Workin' at the Car Wash

Yes, there was also some kid-washing during this activity.  A few kids, and teachers, also got sprayed with the hose!  I’m pretty sure it was my son who was the biggest culprit!  He got as good as he gave, though, and ended up completely soaked before we were done.

For some reason, the kids also created this game of throwing the sponges over the roof of the car.  Needless to say, there were many squeals and giggles to be heard!  I think watching the teachers attempt to get the sponges off the roof made it even funnier!

Water Fun for Kids: Workin' at the Car Wash
Notice all of the sponges on top of the van? Goofballs!!

This turned out to be an amazing activity for the kids.  Even better, it was incredibly simple to set up and clean up!

Update Summer 2013 — We have done this a few more times for summer camps and Water Days.  It continues to be a big hit with the children!  

Water Fun for Kids: Workin' at the Car Wash

Done-for-You Preschool Resources

Planning meaningful lessons for students week after week while balancing other teaching responsibilities and your personal life can be a daunting task. That’s where Preschool Teacher 101 comes in to save you time!

Preschool Teacher 101 has created some amazing preschool lesson and activity plans that will be perfect for your classroom. We have resources for a wide variety of themes and topics that will last all year long.

The car wash activity will fit in perfectly with our cars preschool lesson plans. Click on the image below to learn more about the resource.

Cars lesson plan cover.

Make sure you stop by and join The Pack from Preschool Teacher 101 for exclusive access to our content. We have three options for membership to meet your needs. Click on the images below to learn more about some other great resources!

Mechanic dramatic play resource cover.
Mechanic Dramatic Play
Space dramatic play cover.
Space Dramatic Play
Images of pretend play printables and paleontologist clip art with text that reads preschool dino dig dramatic play
Dino Dig Dramatic Play

Filed Under: Sensory Tagged With: Water

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  1. Ashley says

    July 28, 2013 at 12:19 pm

    I need to get my kids to scrub my van! They love doing it, but for some reason it never gets done! Thanks for sharing at Mom’s Library!

    Reply
    • Mary Catherine says

      July 29, 2013 at 3:22 pm

      You really should get them to scrub the van down! 🙂 But I can understand how it just doesn’t happen. Thanks for hosting Mom’s Library!

      Reply
      • Ashley says

        July 31, 2013 at 1:53 pm

        Featured you this week!

        Reply
        • Mary Catherine says

          August 5, 2013 at 9:20 pm

          Thank you!!

          Reply
  2. Jode@mummymusingsandmayhem says

    August 1, 2013 at 12:40 am

    I love their tent….so much fun! Will be featuring on my Kid’s Co-op post this week …thanks for sharing!

    Reply
    • Mary Catherine says

      August 5, 2013 at 9:18 pm

      Thanks so much, Jode!! I’m excited to have my post included.

      Reply
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My name is Mary Catherine, and I love to share meaningful {and fun} learning activities for kiddos! Feel free to browse and stay awhile!

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