Sand Tray for Writing

We love sensory play activities in our home and this sand tray for writing has turned into one of my kid's favorites. They get completely engrossed and have so much joy playing with it!

 

Sensory learning is incredible to help your children develop fine motor skills along with strengthing their hand and eye coordination, but it's also super fun! 

Thanks to the texture of the sand in this sand writing tray kids are able to develop their sense of touch whilst practicing their writing skills in a dynamic and fun way.

We have a whole collection of alphabet tracing cards that you could print off and use for this writing activity, but I would recommend using the shell alphabet tracing cards as they fit the sand theme perfectly. You could of course make your own too!

Have you just discovered sensory writing trays? Head over to our rice sensory writing tray for another option to mix things up a little. 

Sand tray for writing 

Sand writing tray - supplies

• Wooden Tray
• Yellow paint
• Paint Brush
• Colored Sand
• Glitter
• Alphabet cards - make your own or use printable shell alphabet tracing cards

How to make a sand tray for writing

STEP 1: Paint the tray

To start off, take your wooden tray and paint it with the color you like most, in my case I chose a bright yellow to represent the sand at the bottom of the sea. Yellow also really stands out and helps make the letters you are writing really visible. 

Let the paint dry completely before continuing!

STEP 2: Prepare the colored sand.

Now grab your glitter and stir it into your colored sand. We used blue sand to represent the sea, but again you can use any color that works for you. Once you have mixed your sand and glitter take this mix and pour a thin layer of it into the wooden tray.

PRO TIP

If you don't want to buy colored sand, don't worry! You can always use food coloring and dye regular sand.

Your sand tray is now complete. You can use your finger or a paintbrush to make patterns or letters in the sand. 

STEP 3: Print out alphabet tracing cards

Whilst children will have a lot of fun making patterns in the sand with their finger and enjoy feeling the texture, it is a good idea to have some cards with letters or sight words on them for children to copy. You can make these from card or print out our alphabet tracing cards.

Invite your little ones to play in their new sand tray for writing, show them all the things they can do if they're new to sand writing trays until they get the hang of it. We hope you like it. Enjoy!

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