Calming Lavender Prewriting Tray

My youngest will be heading off to Kindergarten in September and although he is already reading and writing early, much like his older brother, I still like to encourage prewriting skills through play. This calming lavender prewriting sensory tray was a perfect way to spend the morning after a rough start. And it was just the kind of activity that he needed to reset his day.

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For this prewriting tray, I used:

• Epsom salts
• Purple liquid watercolor
• Lavender essential oil
• Large zipper seal bag
• Chopstick
• Cookie cutters - Simple shapes work best.
• Glass dish

To make the lavender scented epsom salt, pour some salt into a large zipper seal bag. Then add about 7-8 squirts of liquid watercolor (how much you use depends on how much salt you use and how dark of a color you want the salt to be) and 5 drops of lavender essential oil. Seal the bag and have your child shake the bag vigorously until all materials are evenly mixed.

Pour the epsom salt into a large glass dish. Add various cookie cutters and a chopstick to the dish as well. Then it's ready for playtime!

My four year old first tried to arrange all the cookie cutters in the tray, trying his best to make them all fit. Stamping the cookie cutters will leave great imprints in the epsom salt, which they could then trace.

Or they can trace the cookie cutters in the salt like below. My son really loved to trace the cookie cutter shapes over and over.

Then, randomly, he declared, "I need a car!" So I grabbed the closest car that I could find...Zuma from Paw Patrol (his favorite)! So K took Zuma for a spin through the salt.

Here's a video of my four year old playing with this sensory prewriting tray:

Looking for other calming sensory activities for kids? Try these:

Lavender Scented Beans

Rainbow Scented Matching Game with Essential Oils