Activities & Days Out / 17 January, 2024 / Nanny Anita

Sand Tray Writing

In the past we have used salt trays for writing in, but I find that it can dry out your hands rather quickly. Well, it does to my hands at lease. This time we used coloured sands to make a sand writing tray.

I love using things like salt or sand trays to do spellings with because it helps eliminates the worry of getting things wrong. If they make a mistake it is easy to just shake the tray to get rid of it, rather than having it on paper. Don’t get me wrong, making mistakes is an important part of learning. But, it can also stop little ones from actually thinking.  YC gets herself into a mind set that once she makes a mistake she can’t do it at all. Having the sand tray does help her get out of that mind set.

Make sure that you follow my writing board on Pinterest for more ideas, and don’t forget to save the pin for later.

To make your own sand writing tray you will need:

• Sand
• Tray

Simply fill the bottom with a nice amount of sand.

We used our sand trays to help us with our spelling practice. I would read out a word and they would try and write it down. If they made a mistake we simply shook the tray and started again.

Both YC and EC love doing their spellings this way. EC asked if we could always do them this way!

Once you have finished your spellings/writing practice you can use the tray for drawing in. YC and I started a game that one of us would draw a picture in the sand and then the other person would copy it onto a piece of paper. We eventually turned our doodles into a card for her mum.

Pin for later: