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Sensory Writing in Fairy Dust

June 17, 2013 by Anna Ranson

Make a magical sensory tray for mark making and early writing using homemade fairy dust and exciting added extras! Such a  fun way to ignite the imagination and enthusiasm for young children as they learn their letters and sight words in a playful, hands-on way!

Writing and mark making in fairy dustAs an early years teacher I am always keen to place a heavy emphasis on learning through fun, creative and playful ways that don’t seem like “work”. Children are much more motivated to learn and attempt new skills if it is connected with a favourite topic and set out in a hands-on, exiting way. A little while ago we made a writing and mark making tray using homemade “moon dust“ and it was a huge hit with the girls!

The next sensory writing tray material we just had to make was some fairy dust!

To make the fairy dust we simply added a few drops of pink liquid food colouring (add a few drops of water to it if using gel colours) to a bag of fine table salt. We shook it up and mixed the colour into the salt evenly through the bag and then tipped it out onto a baking tray to dry. A short while later we stirred through some sparkly silver glitter to add some magic to it!
Invitation to play with fairy dust sensory tray
  I lined our wooden tray with some gold card to create a magical, contrasting colour underneath that would shine through when marks were made in the salt. Then we tipped in just enough fairy dust to cover the bottom with a small depth. If too much is added it is difficult to see the underlaying gold colour when playing, and this is an important factor!

Into the tray I also added a toy fairy figure, a small silver wand, some jewellery, plastic star decorations and a pastry brush for brushing over the salt to smooth it out after use.

 Fairy finger pointer for writing in fairy dust

We used a sparkly star ring to go onto their writing fingers as a way of marking out which one they would be writing and mark making with and to make sure they kept it consistent. This was considered a lot of extra magical fun! The fairy whispered which letters, shapes, patterns or words that she wanted to see magically appear in the dust, then they did their best to write them for her!

With Pop I gave her some simple, hand-drawn pattern cards to copy, following zig-zags, waves, loops and squiggles, for some simple  pre-writing practise. She then worked on letters from her own name (these are always the first letters I would introduce to a child when learning to read and write) and some others that she copied form alphabet charts nearby.
Mark making in fairy dust sensory tray

Cakie worked on her letters too, getting them a similar size to each other and practising those that she sometimes reverse. This “fairy dust” is a lovely materials for making mistakes in as it can easily be brushed over to start again and it feels low-pressure and fun.Writing letters in sensory fairy dust trayWe also played a game where the fairy called out some sounds phonetically that Cakie had to write down, then read back what little CVC (consonant-vowel-consonat) word she had written. We played this in reverse too with the words being called and her sounding them out to write down herself. Writing words in fairy dustThere are plenty of opportunities for all sorts of play with this diary dust sensory writing tray, from working on numbers and shapes to drawing pictures and learning words. It is possible to extend or simplify it for toddlers to school age and is a lovely calming playtime in its own right!

See our calming lavender version of this salt tray play too.

What they are learning as they play:

literacy: making marks, understanding that print converts meaning, using some recognisable letters from their own name and beyond, naming and writing letters from the alphabet, connecting graphemes to their corresponding phonemes and vice versa, beginning to sound out small CVC words independently through reading and writing

physical: enjoying sensory play, exploring the world through use of the senses, pouring and scooping with a  sensory material

creative: using imaginations to play invented games and stories

Cakie: 4.9

Pop: 3.2

Bean: 15 mos

See how to make sensory moon dust here!

Sensory writing tray with moon dust

Search our extensive Playful Literacy archives here for more fun activities!

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Filed Under: ABC, Activities, Age, Alphabet, Creativity, Emergent Writing, Fairies, Fine Motor Development, Imaginative Play, Invitations to Play, Kinaesthetic Learning, Learn, Literacy, Make, Mark Making, Messy Play, Motor Skills, Name Writing, Play, Play Prompts, Pre-Writing, Preschooler, Princess, Salt, School Age, Sensory, Sensory Salt, Sensory Writing Tray, Sounds, Toddler, Toys & Games Tagged With: Alphabet, Early Literacy, Fairies, Literacy, Playful Literacy, Sensory Writing Tray, Writing

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Comments

  1. Hedgehog says

    June 17, 2013 at 6:00 pm

    Hi Anna,

    I so love all your ideas and will definitely be using this one when my new reception children start next autumn. I wanted to ask though what colourings do you use for your dust/playdough and other projects? I’ve always used whatever food colouring I get at the supermarket but they are much less vivid than they used to be (apart from red) and I end up with sludge green or sludge blue and a really insipid yellow. Works for some projects (play dough ice cream) but definitely not for others.

    • Anna Ranson says

      June 20, 2013 at 10:19 am

      I use Wilton gel colours (bought via Amazon) and they’re fab!

  2. Eilidh MacLeod says

    June 18, 2013 at 6:57 pm

    We did this today!! 😀 I might have made too much as it didn’t mark make like yours. I am feeling daft this has just dawned on me as why now! I used a wee bit of poster paint instead of food colouring, I had assumed that was why!

    We also put a hole tub of hundreds and thousands in! 😀

    From Giraffes x

  3. Eilidh MacLeod says

    June 19, 2013 at 12:32 am

    http://giraffescancraft.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/fairy-dust-idea-from-imagination-tree.html my blog about this 🙂

  4. M says

    July 1, 2013 at 8:53 am

    I currently use holiday cookie tins for my children. I tip the salt into the lid so the lip doesn’t get in the way of the arm. Then, when we are finished, it pours right back into the tin and the lid closes. It isn’t as pretty as yours, though…I may have to pull out the magical fairy dust! Such a sweet idea!

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    September 28, 2013 at 5:55 am

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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.

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