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Salt Tray

I’ve seen these really cool salt trays in the blogging world where the child can draw shapes, letters, numbers, etc. with their fingers, and I thought “I wonder if J would like to explore something like this?”.  So, we tried it….and added a few things along the way.

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I gave him some basic shapes cookie cutters and he make impressions in the salt.

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He also just liked to feel the salt with his fingers.

He did this for a bit when I noticed a water bottle of water on the kitchen counter.   “humm”, I thought, “he learned how to squirt last month…I wonder if he’d like to squirt water onto the salt?”

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The water bottle was a bit big for him, but he figured it out and pretty much soaked the salt….and loved every minute of the process.

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The texture of the salt changed, so he had to explore that some.
“Humm…”, I thought again, “what else can we add?  Food coloring…of course!!”

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I added a few drops, but he wanted more.  And…he wanted to do it!  Hey, why not?

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Then, he mixed it all together…

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and we got a whole new sensory experience to play with.

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This was a fun sensory experience that encompasses lots of science and fine motor work. 

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by Amanda Leave a Comment

Filed Under: Play Tagged With: Fine Motor Play, Invitations to Play, messy play, Preschool, Sensory Play, sensory tray, Toddler

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. pauline@lessonslearntjournal.com

    January 10, 2012 at 12:19 pm

    Love it! Did he try eating it? You’ve just given me an idea for an activity tomorrow. Thanks 🙂 xoxo Pauline.

    Reply
  2. Having Fun

    January 10, 2012 at 9:37 pm

    Fun way to make a activity go longer. Looks fun.

    Reply
  3. Jadie

    January 10, 2012 at 9:48 pm

    At what age would this become an appropriate activity? It looks like fun!

    Reply
  4. rebekah

    January 11, 2012 at 3:25 am

    Love this… I’m hoping to colour some rice over the next few days and have that as a sensory play bin… salt looks like a great alternative and a new texture too! Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
  5. Amanda

    January 11, 2012 at 6:49 pm

    Pauline – He did not try eating it. If you’re concerned about that, you can use sugar instead.

    Jadie – Your son is 13 months and I say go for it. I’m not sure if he can squirt the bottle, but he can absolutly mix the colors together and explore the salt. Go ahead and try any activity that looks like fun. If it goes bad then wait a few months and try again.

    Reply
  6. Jode

    January 13, 2012 at 9:16 pm

    I hadn’t thought of doing this…looks great! I’m not sure my 18 mth olds wouldn’t try to eat it but probably not for long lol!Love the concentration on the face!

    Reply
  7. Lindsi B

    January 13, 2012 at 11:12 pm

    This is great! Would you please share this with our readers for Fun Stuff Fridays? http://www.toysinthedryer.com/2012/01/fun-stuff-fridays-6.html

    Reply
  8. MiaB

    January 14, 2012 at 8:03 pm

    Oh my goodness.. how fun!!! And your little one looks so engaged!! I’m your newest follower and would really love it if you could share this here –

    http://www.mamamiasheart2heart.com/2012/01/sharing-saturday.html

    Have a great weekend.

    ~MiaB

    Reply
  9. Beth (www.livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com)

    January 16, 2012 at 2:15 am

    Oh what fun!! My kids love squirting spray bottles – this seems like a LOT of fun!! Thanks for linking up to TGIF! Have a great week,
    Beth =-)

    Reply

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