Learning to write their own name is quite a milestone for a child. Here are some hands-on name activities for preschool that you can use to help your child practise this skill.
How to make colored salt for sensory play
Here’s another idea in our recipes for play series, this time showing you how to make colored salt, which is great for sensory play and learning.
How to make colored salt for sensory play
Watch our Sensory Tub Masterclass
Click to play on the video above to see our sensory tub masterclass. You’ll learn how to make a sensory tub for your children using simple materials, the benefits of sensory tubs for children, and how to use a sensory tub to teach children about math, literacy, science and fine motor skills.
You’ll also see lots of ideas for sensory tub fillings plus find out how to get great printables to add to your tubs. Subscribe to NurtureStore’s YouTube channel to get more sensory play videos!
You only need two ingredients to make coloured salt: salt of course, and some paint. We use a water-based poster paint (tempera). You can add in some glitter for a bit of extra sparkle if you are so inclined.
To make colored salt all you need to do is:
squeeze some of the paint into your salt
mix it thoroughly
then lay out on a tray or in a tub overnight to dry
You can use whatever color you like – we’re going with black for some Halloween-themed salt. If you store the salt in an airtight container, it will last for ages. It’s great as a base for sensory play and particularly good for practising mark making, writing and spellings.
A Halloween salt tray for writing practice
We’re using our salt tray to do some writing and spelling work. You can use a finger, pencil or paint brush to write in the salt. It will hold the shape of the letters so you can see them, and it offers a great sensory experience of the words, as you can feel the words as you write. We decided to make a black cat to go on the end of our paint brush, to give a Halloween-theme, and to please my cat-mad daughter.
Word spider printable
Then we made some word spiders, to use as a guide when writing our words in the salt. {You can print off a template of a spider below.}
Cut out the body and legs of the spider. Stick them together. Use a white pencil to draw on eyes and a mouth, and to write your spelling words on the legs.
You can write on any words you like, to suit what your child is learning.
You might want to just write letters for very young children, or let them simply try out making some marks.
You might like to write on word families (eight words starting with b, or starting with ch…)
Or write some sight words, or your child’s weekly spelling or vocabulary words.
Click the image below if you’d like to print off a copy of our spider printable to use.
Then you’re all ready to try out some salt writing. You only need a shallow layer of salt in the bottom of the tray – give it a try and see how if feels to write your words
Alphabet games :: letter sorting
I’m always looking for ways to make our learning fun, so here’s a printable you can use for alphabet games, especially focused on the often-mixed-up letters b, d and p. It’s something I’m working on with my daughter right now, and with the addition of our hungry monsters, the learning is coming along with lots of giggles too.
Alphabet game :: letter sorting [Read more…]
Activities for toddlers :: reading, writing and songs
Welcome to day five of our activities for toddlers series. We’ve already looked at sensory play, arts and crafts, maths games and imaginary play and today we have some lovely playful ideas for reading, writing and songs that are just right for toddlers.
Activities for toddlers :: reading, writing and songs [Read more…]
Learning how to read with speech bubbles
My daughter is interested in learning how to read so I’m always looking for ways to add words in to our play. She enjoys reading books, but she’s still at the stage where that can feel like hard work sometimes. Adding words into our play gives her lots of opportunities to practice reading but it feels much more like fun than a lesson. Here’s a very simple but effective way to add in some reading to a story telling and art play time :: we’re using speech bubbles!
Learning how to read with speech bubbles [Read more…]
Pretend play post office
‘No! Don’t talk to me Mummy. Send me a letter!’
Our house has been transformed this week with the creation of a pretend play post office. Children who used to run off into the garden at the sight of a pencil and piece of paper are getting up early to check their mail and write replies. Everyone is excited to find mail waiting for them outside their bedroom door when they wake up in the morning and lots of kind wishes are being expressed between siblings in their correspondence. The children are putting in plenty of writing practice too of course and learning the value of letters – making their mark with a practical purpose and having lots of fun as they learn.
How to make a pretend play post office [Read more…]
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