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10+ Ways to Play with… a Spray Bottle

It’s amazing what fun can be had with a simple spray bottle. From craft activities to pretend play, it’s a surprisingly versatile toy.

I didn’t originally intend to make this post a 10+ ways to play post. I just wanted to do some colored water art with my son. It wasn’t until I got the spray bottles out that I realized just how many different things we could use them for.

10+ Ways to play with a spray bottle. check out these fun kids activities that you can do with a spray bottle. Arts and crafts, STEM experiments and games galore, Your toddlers and preschoolers will develop their fine motor skills this summer with these fun spray bottle activities.

Arts and Crafts

Spray Painting

Spraying colored water onto paper was a lot of fun. We did it for quite a few days in a row because it was such a hit. I loved seeing how the patterns changed when the paper dried. We didn’t use watercolor paper, just regular printing paper. The hills and valleys that the paper made when wet caused the water to pool and make interesting patterns.

If your kids love process art activities, check out my posts Painting with Blocks, Toothbrush Painting or the biggest hit in our little family Drip Painting.

Spray Bottle Helicopter Crafts

If you’ve got an empty spray bottle lying around, try turning it into this helicopter craft. The unusual shape of the spray and wipe bottles is perfect for making helicopters. Although I think a whale would work with this shape bottle too. The next time I have an empty bottle, I’m going to try making a whale.

Its so much fun making crafts, mostly because you can then play with them afterward. How great is it for your kids to make their own toys? For more craft ideas that your kids can then use in mini world play check out my posts Egg Carton Insects, or these adorable Sea Creature Crafts for Toddlers.

Spray Bottle Explore and Pretend Activities

What’s that sound?

This was one of my sons favorite spray bottle activities. He loved walking around the garden spraying different things to see what sound they made. Things like our DIY splash pad, pop up shade tent and the roof to the cubby house were the most interesting. Although his favorite by far was mommy screaming when he sprayed her with water.

Pretend play: cleaning

spray bottle pretend play activities for kids and toddlers

Some might call this doing chores, but since the little one thinks he’s playing, then I prefer to look at it as pretend play. If my outdoor furniture gets washed at the same time, well that’s just a bonus.

For more pretend play activities, have a look at my post 10+ mini-world ideas. Your little ones will be train drivers, zookeepers and underwater explorers in no time with these fun play activities.

Mixing Colors STEM Activity

Color mixing STEM activity for kids and toddlers.

While you’ve got the colored water in the spray bottles for your art activity you might as well use it for this simple color mixing STEM experiment for toddlers. Get your kids to count along while you see how many squirts of blue water it takes to make the yellow water look green. Or see if they know what color you’ll get when they mix red and blue together.

If you have older kids, then get them to design their own parachute in this silly flying cow STEM experiment for kids. They’ll have a lot of fun throwing the different parachutes and seeing which one works the best. My son is still too little to actually design the parachute, but he had fun throwing it off of the ladder for WEEKS.

Spray Bottle Games and Puzzles

I Spy Spray Bottle

I love I spy bottles. It’s a lot of fun shaking the bottle around to see if you can find everything hidden on the list. If you need a calm down activity or something that’s easy to pack away and bring out again and again on a rainy day then give I spy Bottles a try.

You can make different bottles using almost anything, 1,2,3 Homeschool 4 Me has a great post, DIY I Spy Bottles, that’ll show you how to make your very own.

Posting

Spray Bottle posting activity for babies and toddlers. Develop fine motor skills in this simple, low prep spray bottle activity.

I’m not entirely sure why posting is such a big hit with small children. But they just love putting things in containers and taking them out again. I’ve used my magnetic craft sticks here, but pom poms would be perfect for this activity if you have them.

If you have magnetic craft sticks at home, check out this free printable fridge door activity. See if your little one can copy the cards to make their very own craft stick pictures. Some pictures are easy, like a square, and some are harder, like a snowflake. That way older kids can be challenged too and play right alongside their younger siblings.

Target Practice

There are different ways to play this game. Which is great if you need to make it more challenging for older kids. See how many cups they can knock down in one shot, or if they can hit the center of the smaller targets.

To make it more challenging for older children, get them to stand further away from the targets, or you can suggest standing on one leg, or have a sibling run in front of the targets.

Energy Burners

Water Fight

Spray bottle water fight. Burn off some energy this summer with this fun water fight idea. AT the same time, you'll develop your toddlers fine motor skills and have a whole lot of fun.

Good ol’ water fight. This game is definitely the favorite in our household. You don’t get quite so wet either, so if the day is a little more chilly or you don’t want to get completely soaking wet, then this is the way to go.

Fountain Challenge

Spray bottle fountain challenge. Burn off some energy this summer with this fun water fight idea. AT the same time, you'll develop your toddlers fine motor skills and have a whole lot of fun.

My son came up with this one all on his own. He lays on his back and tries to catch the water in his mouth. Needless to say, he’s terrible at it, but it’s a great STEM activity. Older kids will enjoy figuring out how the angle of the bottle needs to change to get the water into their mouths.

If you need more energy burner ideas then download my Free Insect Dice Movement Game Printable. All you need is a printer, some scissors and a bit of glue and you’ve got the perfect rainy day activity for burning off some of that extra energy that kids always seem to have. It’s a whole lot of laughs watching as your kids wriggle like a caterpillar or fly like a bee.

More 10+ ways to play activity ideas