Kids Alive – Do the Five has partnered with Messy Bubs to create a multi-sensory play program based on the Kids Alive Do the Five water safety education resources.
Kids Alive Managing Director Emma Lawrence was urging educators and parents of under 5s to get behind the free training program, which provides simple lesson plans for fun activities that help bring water safety messages to life.
“With spring here and summer just around the corner, now is the time to get kids back into swimming lessons and this multi-sensory learning experience is ideal to reinforce what children are learning at swimming lessons,” she said. “Through the partnership with sensory play specialists, Messy Bubs, we have created a suite of fun activities that can be used by parents and educators such as playgroups, day care centres and libraries to open up discussion about water safety in various water environments.”
Natalie Hinchliffe, Director and Founder of Messy Bubs, said each activity was based on the home, the pool, the beach or the farm and gave educators and parents an opportunity to introduce water safety messages in a super fun environment.
“One of the farm activities is ‘Muddy Pigs’ where kids use a mix of cornflour, water and cocoa powder to make little ‘Oobleck’ mud yards you might see on a farm,” Natalie said. “During play, educators and parents can start discussions about farm safety, like introducing the dangers associated with dams”.
Emma Lawrence said Kids Alive was always looking at ways to partner with organisations, community groups and educators to spread water safety messages for under 5s in fun and innovative ways.
“Swimming lessons remain one of the best preventive measures to reduce drownings, but we know not all children have access to learning to swim. Partnerships like these have the potential to fill the gaps and reach children in other places they love to learn and be happy,” she said. “Our goal is zero drownings in the under-fives and we will continue to pursue new ways to teach this precious group.”
“We’ve had several successful partnerships with local libraries, which last year inspired us to create an online training program for other libraries and community groups and last year we also launched a partnership with READY SET DANCE, which saw dance schools across the country incorporate our songs as part of their program.”
Emma said partnerships with organisations that also reach under-fives was part of a deliberate strategy to provide water safety education all year round.
