The Imagination Tree

Creative play and learning for kids

  • Home
  • Start here!
  • Welcome
    • About Me
    • Popular Posts
    • Play Challenge
    • Subscribe
  • Age
    • Baby
    • Toddler
    • Preschooler
    • School Age
  • Activities
    • Literacy
    • Numeracy
    • Creativity
    • Physical
    • PHSE
    • Science
  • Resources
    • Spaces
    • Toys
    • Books
  • Contact
  • Kindness Elves

Dinosaur Swamp Sensory Writing Tray

April 24, 2015 by Anna Ranson

Create a fun and tactile literacy activity for kids with this dinosaur sensory writing tray! Great for pre-schoolers to school age children for mark-making, letter formation, learning to write their names and then onto sight words too! Dinosaur swamp sensory writing activity for kids

Here’s the latest in our Sensory Writing Tray series, with a fun dinosaur theme to appeal to all the dinosaur lovers out there! My girls love adding dinosaurs to small world play scenes or the block play area, and found this new sensory tray very appealing to get their fingers straight into and play with.

Dinosaur swamp writing tray

I mixed a couple of tablespoons of plain flour with some water which I had coloured green [using these Wilton gel food colours- the BEST for all play recipes like these!]

The ratio was about 1:2 for the flour and water, and we just mixed it until it made a consistency which was gloopy and thick, but runny enough to move when a finger was traced through it.

Dinosaur swamp sensory writing tray

A thin layer of the dinosaur swamp goop was spread over the white, plastic tray [ours is a serving platter from the picnic section at the supermarket.]

Then we added some grass and some toys dinosaur figures.

Sensory writing tray with a dinosaur theme

My preschooler loved playing with the dinosaurs in the gloopy swamp mix, making them stamp and roar and watching the gloop stretch and drop from their feet! She then made lots of marks in the material, telling me that she was writing her name and making lots of sounds of letters that she has heard us saying often. A next step for her will be to offer her a name card with her name printed clearly on it, so she can begin to copy that with her fingers.Writing in a dinosaur swamp

Miss 6 wrote me some words so that I could guess what they were and Miss 5 practised some of her sight words and 100 High Frequency words from her learning list. We have these magnets on the fridge to remind us what they are and they’re great for these types of activities!

They loved the feeling of this Sensory Writing Tray in their fingers and we are going to make it on a much bigger scale in our Tuff Spot in the summer time Watch this space for more gloopy, gloriously sensorial play and learning ideas coming up!

See all our SENSORY WRITING TRAY ideas here and our PLAYFUL LITERACY archives too!

Dinosaur swamp sensory writing activity for kids fb

What they are learning while they play:

literacy: recognising graphemes, linking phonemes and graphemes, practising name writing, learning sight words, reading and writing high frequency words

creativity: using figures and materials to create small worlds and imaginative play scenes

[This post contains Amazon affiliate links for your convenience.]

Related Posts

  • Pumpkin Sensory Writing TrayPumpkin Sensory Writing Tray
  • Candy Cane Sensory Writing TrayCandy Cane Sensory Writing Tray
  • Monster Slime Sensory Writing TrayMonster Slime Sensory Writing Tray
  • Soccer Sensory Writing TraySoccer Sensory Writing Tray
  • Star Wars Sensory Writing TrayStar Wars Sensory Writing Tray
  • DIY Alphabet Pebbles for Literacy PlayDIY Alphabet Pebbles for Literacy Play

Filed Under: ABC, Age, Alphabet, Dinosaurs, Emergent Writing, Fine Motor Development, Learn, Letters, Literacy, Make, Mark Making, Messy Play, Motor Skills, Name Writing, Play, Pre-Writing, Preschooler, Resources, School Age, Sensory, Sensory Writing Tray, Sight Words, Spelling Tagged With: Early Literacy, Literacy, Playful Literacy

« Goldilocks Sensory Storytelling Basket
Egg Carton Flowers Necklace »
The Imagination Tree on FacebookThe Imagination Tree on TwitterThe Imagination Tree on PinterestThe Imagination Tree on G+RSS feed from The Imagination TreeThe Imagination Tree straight to your inbox

Search The Imagination Tree

About The Imagination Tree Hello and welcome! I'm Anna, Mama of 4, early years teacher and play enthusiast from the UK! Click here to read more about me.

The Kindness Elves Store
Play Ideas on The Imagination Tree

Create with The Imagination Tree

Makes on The Imagination Tree

Sign up for our FREE emails:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Categories

Archives

Copyright © 2023 · Foodie Pro Theme by Shay Bocks · Built on the Genesis Framework · Powered by WordPress

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT