Colander Pour in the Kitchen Sink

Water play in the kitchen sink with “Colander Pour”.

There is absolutely nothing I love more than a pouring station and my toddler, Sam, feels the same way. Together, we came up with Colander Pour as a quick “in the kitchen” activity.

This pouring station of sorts was based around one of our favorite toddler activity supplies: colanders. Sam loves standing at the kitchen sink to play so I knew we could have a winning activity on our hands.

How to play “Colander Pour”:

Materials:
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• Small colanders
• Bath toy colanders
• Food coloring

The set up for this activity is beyond simple: I plugged the kitchen sink and filled it with blue colored water. I made it blue because life  is just more fun with blue water.

I dumped in a few bathtub toys with holes (very colander-esque) and our beloved small colanders (we use them for berry snacks).

I wanted to focus this pouring station on colanders – specifically showing Sam what they are and how the water seeps through them. I had high hopes and I wasn’t disappointed with how this went.

It took a solid amount of coordination to hold the colander and pour – great for his arm muscles so that was an added bonus to the activity.

Sam poured and tinkered to his little heart’s content. Kitchen sink activities are some of my favorites because I can work and putter (ie: unload the dishwasher, make dinner) while supervising him and enjoying some time with my boy.

Sam came up with the idea to plug the other side of the sink to add an area to pour into. This was a great extension to our colander pour. Oh and huge bonus: this held his attention for 15 minutes which is basically forever in toddler land?

With everything being in the kitchen sink, clean up was a breeze and the mess was minimal. It looks like a silly activity but I promise Sam did so much: hand eye coordination, pouring skills, capacity… the list goes on and on.

Try Colander Pour next time you need a quick dinner-time activity.