Sunday, March 10, 2013

St. Patrick's Day Salt Tray Writing Activity

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Salt tray writing activity for St. Patrick's Day.

We tried writing in a salt tray for the first time the other day and it was a huge hit with J, who spent over an hour drawing in it.

I knew I needed to invest in a bigger tray if we were going to do this type of salt tray letter writing activity again. Fortunately, I found a huge white tray at Dollarama for $2 that I knew would work perfectly. The only downfall is that the tray is white and so is salt. So I decided to make some colored salt and with St. Patrick's Day just around the corner, it just made sense to make green salt.

It turned out to be the perfect St. Patrick's Day inspired prewriting activity for J!

Salt tray for writing inspired by St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day Salt Tray for Writing: What You'll Need

For this activity, you'll need:

  • A large shallow tray or dish
  • Table salt
  • Green food coloring
  • Plastic zipper seal bag
To make some green salt for this salt tray, I put table salt and some green food coloring into a plastic zipper seal bag. Then I shook the bag until the salt was evenly colored.

Then I poured the salt into the tray and drew a shamrock in the salt. Like so...

St. Patrick's Day inspired salt tray for writing

Writing in a Salt Tray for St. Patrick's Day

You can supply a paint brush or chopstick for writing and drawing in this salt tray, but we went with just fingers for added sensory input.

Writing in a salt tray for St. Patrick's Day

J loved having a bigger surface to work with. He practiced writing numbers (surprise, surprise), but he did some handprints in the salt as well. He also enjoyed making multiple hand prints to count.

Salt tray writing St. Patrick's Day activity for preschoolers and toddlers

Salt tray writing St. Patrick's Day activity for preschoolers and toddlers

I love how versatile the salt tray is.  And it is easily becoming one of J's new favorite things to play with.

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St. Patrick's Day salt tray writing activities for preschool and toddlers