How Do You Use Your Playground Fence?

Warm weather leads to a new world of possibilities in Minnesota.

Gone are the below zero wind chills, knee deeepsnow and frosted windows.
Summer is here.  Sunshine, breezes, and new birth.
My kids love water, mud, rocks, sand, leaves and any combination of these wonderful treasures. I am always captured by their excitement and drawn in by their play.  It makes me a better teacher, as I look for ways to add to their play.

Thus the creation of our water wall.
I stood looking at a bare stretch of unused fencing in an area of the playground that often gets ignored.  It is not near the sandbox, playground apparatus and does not allow for much movement in running or game playing.  I was then drawn to the splashing in a puddle and pouring of water.  The seeds were planted and the water wall was born.

Thanks to the generous donations of parents I was able to begin the construction on this unused piece of fencing. We used flexible tubing, funnels, pvc piping, pool noodles, duct tape, zipties, and mesh netting.

The netting was taped over the funnels to limit the rocks and wood chips that get into the funnels. In the PVC piping we poked 3 sporatic holes and capped the end of the tubing. This alows water pressure to build up, inside the pipe and then, it is forced out of the holes, and squirts in streams of water that rise and fall. A fun way to explore physics.

Flexible tubing and water noodles, weave in and out of the fence and around each other creating an interesting pattern of movement and allows for problem-solving as they try to predict where the water will emerge from. Some tubes are open on the end. Other tubes end with sprinklers or buchets at their end to collect or spray water.

Once attached provide pleanty of water from buckets and hoses. Be sure they have items to tote and collect water in. Be prepared they will get wet and messy. Just relax and enjoy the fun.