The Imagination Tree

Creative play and learning for kids

  • Home
  • 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

Unicorn Sensory Writing Tray

March 13, 2017 by Anna Ranson

Make a magical unicorn sensory writing tray for writing the alphabet, phonics, sight words and numbers in a fun way! Perfect for preschoolers and school aged kids to learn a range of literacy and maths skills and for an alternative way to practise spellings for homework!

Here we are with our latest SENSORY WRITING TRAY in our ever-ongoing series! We have sparked a bit of an internet obsession with these as they’re popping up all over social media and kids’ activities blogs at the moment, so that’s fun to witness too. The kids are loving them and it’s so fun to be able to tackle their homework in a much more fun way than boring old pencil and paper!

You can see our full and extensive range of sensory writing trays here for inspiration to get you going, from rainbows and star dust to Harry Potter, football and Star Wars!

Miss 5 is still completely obsessed by unicorns so it was time to make her a sensory writing tray just for her to enjoy all  by herself. This was such a simple one to set up as she had this gorgeous rainbow sparkle unicorn toy for her birthday which set the scene brilliantly.

Into a plain white serving tray I sprinkled a thin layer of bright pink glitter, then added the unicorn, some crystal gems and a magic wand for an extra bit of magic!

Here are some short cuts to help you find everything we used! [Amazon affiliate links.]

I traced some star shapes onto patterned card using a cookie cutter, then cut them out and wrote a sight word onto each one using a Sharpie marker. I also wrote on the back of each one too as there are 100 common frequency words for Reception age (Kindergarten.)

She was delighted by the tray and started to practise her words immediately, using her finger to trace the letters in the glitter. She read or sounded out each word on the card before she began, then wrote it once before giving the tray a shake to re-set the glitter, and then practised writing it again without looking.

This is the classic read, write, cover check technique of learning to spell tricky words by sight and is particularly useful for words which don’t make sense phonetically such as “the” and “was”.

Here’s one way we used it for a simple counting and numeral practise session, using the glass gems to count out a given number, then writing the number in the tray to match the amount. You could extend this to simple addition and subtraction too.

We’ve kept the word cards stored in a zip loc bag for her to pull out and use again anytime with the tray, for mark making, drawing, sight words or maths.

Here are our full SENSORY WRITING TRAY archives to browse and be inspired by! I hope you’ll find a great idea or two for your own little ones or classroom to try today.

This post contains Amazon affiliate links. I hope they help and thanks for your support!

If you loved this Unicorn Sensory Writing Tray idea please share it! thanks x

Related Posts

  • Flower Themed Sensory Writing TrayFlower Themed Sensory Writing Tray
  • Phonics Cups Literacy GamePhonics Cups Literacy Game
  • Candy Cane Sensory Writing TrayCandy Cane Sensory Writing Tray
  • Monster Slime Sensory Writing TrayMonster Slime Sensory Writing Tray
  • Star Wars Sensory Writing TrayStar Wars Sensory Writing Tray
  • Leaf Sensory Writing TrayLeaf Sensory Writing Tray

Filed Under: ABC, Age, Alphabet, Counting, Emergent Writing, Fairies, Fine Motor Development, Glitter, How To, Kinaesthetic Learning, Language, Learn, Letters, Literacy, Make, Mark Making, Math, Name Writing, Pre-Writing, Preschooler, Resources, School Age, Sensory Writing Tray, Sight Words, Sounds, Writing Tagged With: Literacy, Phonics, Playful Literacy, Preschool, Writing

« Chalk Marker and CD Art
Kindness Elves Birthday Party Ideas! »
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