Friday, March 08, 2013

Salt Tray

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While reading through one of my favorite blogs, The Imagination Tree, I came across this post about using salt trays as a prewriting activity.  Well, J loves practicing his writing skills lately so I figured I should give this idea a try.

Materials
  • A tray - I used the lid from a decorative Christmas tin.
  • Table salt - Enough to cover the surface of the tray.
The Invitation to Play
Pour just enough salt into the tray to cover the bottom.  Gently shake the tray to let the salt settle.  I set up the salt tray on the kitchen table, but J started drawing before I was able to take a picture of the set up.
J trying out the salt tray
As is typical of J, he spent his time drawing numbers in the salt.  He started at one, but went all the way up to 100, one-by-one.  Once he got to 100, he started counting by a hundred, eventually stopping at 1200 (he calls it one-twenty-zero).  He also let a caterpillar toy take a turn in the salt tray.  In the end, J easily spent over an hour straight playing with the salt tray.

Below is a sample of J's number writing:



Caterpillar's turn!
K tried it out too.  He made a couple of swirls in the salt and then, of course, gave it a taste.
K's turn!
Mmmm...salty!
Aside from all the learning that can be done using salt trays, I love how it can be altered in different ways.  You could add glitter, food coloring, and/or essential oils to create a unique sensory experience every single time.