Anyone make a water table?

[anomaly13]

Not sure if this is the best place to post this but I want to make my kiddos a water table fpr the yard. We have low outdoor wooden table I would like to cut the center out of and put some sort of basin in. Not sure where to get a basin. It needs to be shallow and made of something the sun won't destroy, also on the lighter side so I can move it around the yard to keep it in the shade of our only tree as the sun moves.

Any ideas?

[junipermuse]

I think you may be able to get a basin at a hardware store like home depot. You can also get an appropriate basin from lakeshore learning or discount school supply, though they only seem to come in a set of four. That's not so bad though because you could use one for water and then use the others for other sensory materials like mud, sand, birdseed, cornmeal, rice, etc. and then instead of dumping the material to change it you just switch out the bins.

http://www.lakeshorelearning.com/seo.../sandwater.jsp

[LaughingHyena]

I usually use an under bed storage box for water play. We just put in on the floor but I love the idea of making a frame for it.

I don't know how well it would survive outdoors, I usually bring it in after a couple of days. We don't have a dedicated water box, we empty out the toys form one and after a couple of days I'm itching to get them back in

Another option is an old baby bath tub. I've been watching free-cycle but there haven't been any local ones recently.

[sapphire_chan]

A lid? Then you could use any old cheap basin thing and not worry about sun exposure.

[MissMaegie'sMama]

If you have a farm/ag supply store in your area, try an animal feeding trough. They are shallow enough to use as a water table, and they come in a variety of diameters (most are oval-shaped). They're also easy to clean and free of nooks and crannies where algae, etc. can build up, and they usually have a stopper/drainage hole in the bottom so you can empty the water when you aren't using the tub. Best of all, they're super sturdy and made for outdoor use, so it should handle the elements without warping or cracking.

[trghig]

I use just an under the bed storage container. Being military it doesn't pay to build a frame for it. I just set the box on the ground and my toddker is happy to play in it. If we weren't military, I'd love to have a frame for it to get it off the ground.

[blue-green]

I think you can buy a cement mixing bin from Home Depot or a hardware store.
I learned that from here:

http://imakestuff.typepad.com/i-make...y-made-it.html