10 Bath Activities for Tots (A Preschool Teacher’s Top Pick!)

One of the most awesome hot bath benefits is that it brings out your inner child

If you’re stuck inside, try out-of-the-box bath activities with your preschoolers. Pennsylvania preschool teacher Valerie Feldman says, “For a change of scenery, try the bathroom instead of the usual play area. But don’t leave your preschooler unsupervised.”

Bath activities for preschoolers can be both fun and educational. The best bath activities are not only creative but also multi-sensory. A great bath activity will lure a bath-resistant preschooler right into the tub.

10 Bath Activities for Preschoolers

Here are 10 amazing bath activities to try today with your child. Enjoy their giggles as they delight in the fun!

1. DIY Soap Crayons

Making soap is one of the most fun bath activities to do with preschoolers. It’s super easy, too. And what could be more fun than drawing on the walls of the bathtub with homemade creations? (Don’t worry: The lines on the walls will be lightly colored and will wash off easily.)

Here’s what you need:

A brick of white or clear glycerin soap from the craft store or two bars of white glycerin soap. (Don’t use Ivory soap – it’s made with whipped air and won’t melt the right way). You’ll use about 3 squares from the brick to make 1 soap crayon, or 1/2 a bar of soap for each crayon.
A silicone soap mold in any shapes you’d like for your crayons.
Liquid soap dyes for color.
Small bowls, one for each color crayon you want to make.
Spoons, one for each color crayon you’ll make.
One microwave-safe bowl.
Access to microwave.

And here are the steps:

Place your silicone mold on a tray that will fit in the freezer, like the one from your toaster oven.
Chop up your soap.
Melt the chopped soap for 30-60 seconds in a microwave-safe dish.
Pour soap into liquid measuring cup. And from there, separate melted soap into small bowls – one for each color crayon you want to make. (The spout of the measuring cup makes it easier to get into the small bowls.)
Mix in about 10 drops of liquid soap dye into each small bowl.
Put one small bowl back into the microwave for 15 seconds, and then pour contents into a liquid measuring cup.
Pour from the liquid from the measuring cup into your mold.
Wash out the measuring cup, so you’re ready to work on the next color crayon.
Now repeat the steps for each colored crayon you want to make.
Place in freezer an hour until hard and ready to use.

2. Catch a Star

Asia Citro at the blog Fun at Home with Kids has discovered the joy of playing with gelatin! She says:

“Gelatin is one of our favorite sensory materials over here. We’ve done a baby sensory play with it, we’ve made it fizz like pop rocks, and we’ve frozen it. So it was only natural that we’d make it glow.”

Asia has a super cool recipe for making glow-in-the dark edible stars that are perfect for squishing and catching in the tub.

3. Squirt Me With Recycled Fun

You know how a cardboard box is the best toy? Well, this is one of the most simple bath activities that can yield a similar type of exhilaration.

Children pick plastic bottles out of a recycle bin to use for a bath activity

Grab some of the more interesting shaped plastic cartons from your recycle bin. Run through the dishwasher and then let your little one live it up in the bathtub.

You’ll be amazed at how much fun they will have squirting bathwater out of a plastic ketchup bottle, or pouring water over their head from a plastic yogurt container.

Simple pleasures!

4. Spray Paint Bubble Bath

The flowing bathtub water might help your preschooler get in touch with her inner artist! Jen over at Mama.Papa.Bubba made a clever set of bathtub paints for her preschooler.

Spray Paint Bubble Bath

First, she filled several water bottles with water. Then she added a few drops of a different food coloring to each. Finally, she filled the tub with bubble bath and watched her preschooler make a bathtub masterpiece.

5. Alphabet Letter Sounds Bath Activity

Educational bath activities are the best. Here’s a great one from the NurtureStore that’s will help your preschooler associate learning letters with great fun!

Bath Activity - A preschooler washes foam alphabet letters in the bathtub

Put foam letters of the alphabet in the tub along with a bunch of your child’s toys. Ask your child to pick a letter. Next, ask your child to wash the letter with soap and a washcloth. This helps your preschooler to focus on the feel and shape of that letter.

Now for the fun part: Can you preschooler find a toy in the tub that starts with that letter?

Relaxing with letters is the first step to developing a life-long love affair with words.

6. Sponge Animal Bath Bomb

Making a toy for the tub makes bathtime extra fun!

With a few simple ingredients, you can help your preschoolers make bath bombs with different colors. Add a few drops of essential to add another sensory dimension.

For a quick adorable bath bomb recipe that includes a hidden sponge animal inside, watch this video from Brooke at What’s Up Moms:

Like I said earlier with the soap crayon activity, DIY bath activities provide hours of fun. And when kids make creations they can use with their own hands, they feel oh-so-satisfied.

7. PVC Bath Tunnels

Want to replicate the fun of a giant water park right in your bathtub? Then this is the activity for you.

A Tunnel of PVC pipes attached to a wall. A preschooler sits in the tub and dumps water through the pipes with his bucket

A word of warning: You’ll need to be able to use a drill. What you’ll do is get PVC pipes in elbow-shapes and T’s. Next, drill holes and wedge in suction cups. Then stick these on your bathroom walls for amazing hours of water fun.

Find more details about this super cool activity created by Ellis Belus and posted on the OhMeOhMy blog.

8. Bath Time Play Dough

Mushy, squishy, soft and knead-y. Is there a day that can’t be made more fun with Play Dough? Of course, not! And there isn’t a bathtub that can’t be made more fun with Play Dough either.

Here from Sugar, Spice & Glitter is a bathtime Play Dough Soap recipe that you can make with your preschooler, and then your preschooler can enjoy making shapes with it in the tub.

Why not whip up a batch of yellow Bath Time Play Dough so your kids can make their own rubber duckies!

9. Car-Themed Bath Activity

Have you ever run into a preschooler who hates the bath but loves toy cars? If yes, you’ll want to listen up very carefully.

Mom Samantha from Stir the Wonder came up with this brilliant and extremely simple car-themed bath for her toddler son. All you need is craft foam, a permanent marker and scissors.

A preschooler plays with cars on the ledge of the bathtub

From here you can create a road along the ledge of the tub, as well as stop signs, lights and all kinds of car-related fun. The foam sticks to wet walls, so no need for tape.

Vroom! Vroom! Bathtime just got a serious workup.

10. Beach Party!

Preschool teacher Valerie Feldman recommends pulling out all the stops by hosting a beach party for your preschooler in your bathroom! This amazing bath activity can be as simple or elaborate as you’d like. To go all out, follow these steps (and to keep it simple, choose one or two):

First, make some popsicles by freezing juice in plastic cups and adding popsicle sticks. Or, alternatively, how about some fruit smoothies?

Next, prepare your Spotify playlist. Try hits like Little White Duck (by Raffi), Have You Seen the Dolphin? (by Itty Bitty Beats) or look for the album sure to create the perfect vibe: Catch a Wave: Beach Songs for Kids.

Summer swim bath bomb with goggles and sunscreen

Put on bathing suits—and yes, if there’s not another preschooler to join the party, that means you too.

Get your beach towels, flip-flops, and a beach ball if you have one. Lay your towels on the floor. Fill the tub. Add some bubbles. (This is my favorite bubble bath.)

Now let the party begin! Take a dip in the ocean and enjoy your popsicles there for maximum fun.

And if you really want to turn this into a longer activity, make some Summer Swim Bath Bombs. (They should harden overnight for best results, so you’ll want to do this at least one day before the Beach Party starts.) This bath bomb will turn your water into a sparkling, bubbly sea blue. During the beach party, you can throw one into the tub and then search the seafloor for the hidden surprise!

10 Bath Activities for Tots (A Preschool Teacher’s Top Pick!)