The children have been eager to explore different parks that are accessible along the bike paths near our school. On a hot day, we decided to head over to Parkside Park. Upon arrival, the children quickly reported that the the slide was too hot to slide down. One child wishfully said that they wished it was a water slide. The teacher’s quickly talked it over, and decided a water slide was a wish they could fulfill with the help of our KodoKids water pump. A teacher biked back to school with a five year old helper, and loaded the water pump (full of water), into the Burley bike wagon to bring back to the park.
While some children used the pump’s hose attachment to pump water up the playground and down the slide, other children opted to use sponges and basters dipped in water to “wash” the playground and cool it down. One five year old, figured out how to loop the hose around the top of the slide so that the hose did not have to be held. Another child dug a hole at the bottom of the slide to add a water collection bucket so that the water from the slide could be recycled back to the pump. The teachers were happy to help the children take turns pumping the water, while talking about why it was harder to pump upwards than downwards (gravity). Overall, the children were excited to explore our water pump and water toys in a new environment; summer camp is again proving that our classroom can be anywhere!