Salt Tray for Letter Writing Practice {With FREE Printables} – Fall Themed
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Looking for an affordable and fun way for the little ones to practice writing their letters? Continue reading below to see how we made our own fall-themed salt tray (it’s so easy!).
What You’ll Need
- Salt
- Food coloring (we used liquid watercolors)
- Ziplock bag (sandwich size)
- Paper plate, small tray, or any container to use as tray to hold colored salt
What to Do
Pour some salt into a ziplock bag (we used about a cup).
Squirt several drops of food coloring into the bag with the salt.
Seal bag. Shake and squish until the salt and food coloring are mixed thoroughly (this is the really fun part!).
Pour your colored salt into your tray (it may take a few minutes for the salt to dry completely). Print out your letters while the salt dries and cut them out. You could also laminate them if you’d like. We made a Lego stand for our letters but you could also simply place your letters on the side of the tray or on the table.
Give your child one letter card and the tray of salt. Ask them to write the letter in the sand with their finger or an unsharpened pencil.
Quick tip: We discovered that less salt in the tray makes it easier to write the letters.
The kids also enjoyed using their alphabet letters in the salt. It’s a little difficult to tell from the photo but they made the neatest impressions in the colored salt! We purchased these letters when we made our Chicka Chicka Boom Boom playdough activity set and we’ve used them countless times since then. They really make learning about letters fun!
We went with a fall theme with our orange colored salt and leaf letter cards but you could color your salt any color you’d like!
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Rachel - Volcano MamaT
Wednesday 12th of October 2016
Thanks for the fun activity! We've been working on letters for awhile and I'm always adding new activities. My peanut hasn't been drawn to do salt yet, but maybe making some fun colors will help!
The Art Kit
Friday 14th of October 2016
I bet a fun color would help! Maybe if your little one helps choose a color and mix it they'll be more inclined to practice their letters in salt? :)
Kaitlyn
Thursday 15th of September 2016
Oh my goodness! I didn't realize you could even color salt since it can dissolve when wet in water! What a super idea to add some pizzazze to our salt trays! Do you think if I added a drop of an essential oil it would make the salt too wet to dry out? Especially for Noah, I think it'd further implore his senses. Thoughts, Dana?
The Art Kit
Friday 14th of October 2016
We used just a few drops of gel food coloring and it turned out great! I bet a drop of essential oil would be fantastic! Will have to try that next time. :)