My toddler is really into learning and drawing letters, and loves to practice them over and over. We decided to use an old toy packaging box to make a tray to write our letters in sugar. This allows your child to practice writing, improve their fine motor coordination, while having a tactile sensory experience.
A box/tray that will contain the sugar (I used an old wooden toy box that held pieces to a Melissa and Doug toy)
Sugar
A pencil
Print out some letters or drawings your child can mimic
by Caroline of Armelle Blog
hostess / wonderful honeydew / 32460 posts
Ooh this is a great idea! Thanks!
guest
that.is.amazing. Best idea ever!!
nectarine / 2085 posts
We do some prewriting exercises like this with salt. I’d be scared to use sugar due to bugs! The salt doesn’t always stay in the tray (or the tray I put the salt tray in).
pomegranate / 3516 posts
I love this! What a good idea!
honeydew / 7968 posts
Love! How old would you say this project is good for?
pomelo / 5178 posts
@honeybear: oh salt is a good idea! I like this tray but I think DD would eat all the sugar instead of practicing her letters.
pomelo / 5000 posts
Fine sand you can purchase at a place like Lowe’s works as well. You can put it in an aluminum pie tray or something like that as well.
grapefruit / 4584 posts
Bookmarking this for later! We just did a similar activity today at a sensory baby class (using cookie cutters to make prints since they were too small for the writing part). My 8 month old loved it! The kids were playing in white flour mixed with cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove powder. It smelled sooo good!
blogger / wonderful cherry / 21628 posts
This is neat!
pomelo / 5866 posts
Nice!!! And thanks for the variations in the comments as well.
blogger / wonderful cherry / 21616 posts
fun idea!
blogger / nectarine / 2687 posts
@Happygal: I agree! We also use colored sand, which makes it extra fun
@honeybear: @Honeybee: we use salt at school, too! One of my friends had student lick sand off her fingers and stick it back in, so she promptly switched to salt, too
wonderful olive / 19353 posts
Brilliant idea!
blogger / pomegranate / 3201 posts
I love this!
nectarine / 2085 posts
@Mrs. Cowgirl: @Honeybee: Ha! I use a really salty playdough recipe for this reason, too.
We started the salt tray as a “finger painting” exercise, without the pencil. But it totally became a salt-grabbing-and-dumping-on-the-table exercise for the first few minutes (so I would recommend being parsimonious with the salt the first time around!).
blogger / pineapple / 12381 posts
@Honeybee: How about garlic powder
blogger / persimmon / 1398 posts
We’re totally going to try this tomorrow!