Water Gun Fun!

Our weather sure got hot in a hurry!  I have been wanting to try this activity out for some time now, and today felt like the perfect day.  The boys were very excited that school time happened outside today.  The prep time was minimal and totally worth it.  They both loved it! If you want to try it out at home, all you need is:

Water guns (We use the cylinder-shaped ones that you pull to load and push to shoot)
Paper
Permanent markers
Good quality packing tape
An outdoor space you don't mind getting wet

So, here's what I did.  I targeted something I want each boy to work on--Jack, teen number recognition.  Harry, colors.  I punched out (using a handy-dandy 3" circle paper punch, but you could use any size or shape of paper that you want) a bunch of circles in different colors.  I wrote teen numbers on several of them for Jack.  I took one of each color for Harry and I wrote each letter of his name on some of them, just for fun.  Here is what they looked like when I was done cutting and writing, plus a shot of Harry's part of the fence.

After I had that ready, I rounded up the troops and let them load their weapons and told them what to shoot!  With Harry, I asked him to find a color and shoot it.  If there was a letter on it, I would identify it for him.  Usually, he would ignore me.  Sometimes, he would say it back. ;) For Jack, I just told him a number and he had to find it.  He did not want to stop.  Loved it!  Here they are!

This would work out really great for so many different things.  You could do color, number, letter or shape identification.  If your kids are older but you think they would still enjoy this, you could write numbers on the circles and call out addition or subtraction sentences and have them hit the sum or difference.  You could write sight words on them.  You could write words on them, call out a rhyming word and have them hit the match.

I was thinking that this would be a fun inside rainy day game if I can run a set through the laminator and post them around the house.  We could trade in the water guns for our nerf guns and it'd be like a whole new challenge.  I would love to hear if you give it a try.  Happy shooting!