Make a playful literacy resource for kids to practise their letter sounds and sight words in this Valentine’s sensory writing tray!
I set up a quick little invitation to play and learn for the girls with a Valentine’s themed sensory writing tray. These sensory writing trays have become a favourite way to invite some kinaesthetic learning for all three girls at their various stages of literacy development, from the simplest beginnings of mark-making and holding a writing or drawing tool, to copying patterns, letters of the alphabet, name writing and eventually onto practising sight words too. I wish I was back in the classroom to use these regularly with kids to tie in with their particular interests!
Into a heart shaped baking dish I tipped a thin layer of salt which I had dyed pink using Wilton gel colouring. [These are the absolute best making intense colours for all play recipes e.g. dyed rice, salt, pay dough and salt dough. Affiliate link.]
Simply mix a very small amount of colouring with the salt in a zip lock bag, shaking it up and using your hand to fully integrate the colour. Once mixed it doesn’t take long to dry, and can then be stored and reused indefinitely. We now have pots of this ready to go in most colours!
I added a small red paint brush and a paper straw topped with a large heart sequin, as two possible mark making tools for them to use, along with their fingers.
I cut some hearts from red card and onto these I wrote some letters from Miss 2’s name and also some that Miss 4 has been practising forming correctly in handwriting at school. On the pink hearts I wrote some simple sight words for Miss 4 to read and copy and some longer words for Miss 6 to decode and write too.
They love these set ups because of the highly tactile nature of the activity and that they are themed to their particular interests. They’re a great way of incorporating homework tasks from school e.g. phonics and spelling lists, as well as making engaging literacy stations or activities when planning for homeschool or the classroom.
See all our other ways we have used SENSORY SALT TRAYS here (and many more are on the way too!)
See our PLAYFUL LITERACY archives here, for hands-on, worksheet-free ways to learn letters, names, phonics, sight words, storytelling, reading and writing.
Follow my LITERACY PLAY pin board too, for wonderful ideas collected from around the web.
Follow Anna @ The Imagination Tree’s board Literacy Play Ideas on Pinterest.
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