Rainbow Salt Writing Tray * ages 3-6

Posted on by Andrea

Rainbow Salt Writing Tray 🌈 ages 3-6 🌈 Who doesn’t love rainbows?!?! My 5 year old, Oliver, learns best when I can make it fun and colorful. He loves sensory writing trays so I decided to make a rainbow colored one.

Rainbow Salt Writing Tray

MATERIALS NEEDED TO MAKE A RAINBOW SALT WRITING TRAY (affiliate links):

HOW TO MAKE A RAINBOW SALT WRITING TRAY:

  1. Cut strips of construction paper about 2.5 inches thick in red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple.
  2. Line them up just slightly overlapping and tape them together with clear tape.
  3. Flip the taped pieces over so that the tape side is on the bottom and place on the baking sheet.
  4. Sprinkle salt on top of the rainbow paper (we used about 1/4 cup).
  5. Write some simple sight words on index cards using black marker.

Once setup is complete, give the child a paintbrush and ask them to write the words one at a time on the index cards.  Once a word is complete, they can gently shake the tray back and forth so the word disappears.  For kids that are too young to read, you can focus on writing letters, numbers or even shapes!

This activity is perfect for a rainbow themed week in school.

Check out the below video to see Oliver using our Rainbow Salt Writing Tray:

 

Looking for more sensory tray ideas?  Check out some of our other sensory trays using sand, glitter and sprinkles.

WHAT IS A SENSORY WRITING TRAY?

So you might be asking yourself exactly what is a sensory writing tray?  Well basically, it’s any low rimmed tray filled with a movable medium.  It’s a great way to help kids learn letters and letter formation, numbers and shapes. You can also practice sight words and math facts for older kids.

Here is a list of our favorite materials to fill writing trays:

  • Salt
  • Sand
  • Sprinkles
  • Glitter
  • Pudding
  • Play Dough
  • Spices
  • Barley
  • Oatmeal
  • Shaving Cream
  • Rice
  • Sugar
  • Flour
  • Cornmeal

Here are some fun ideas for objects to use to draw the letters:

  • Paintbrush
  • Fingers
  • Feather
  • Candy Cane (for holiday time)
  • Unsharpened pencil eraser
  • Chopstick
  • Make-up Brush

This article from The OT Toolbox has tons of great info about writing trays.

For more fun ideas on learning letters, check out our other letter activities!

About Raising Dragons

Raising Dragons is a site dedicated to raising strong, smart, amazing kids!  Our focus is on creating activities that can easily be pulled together with items you have around the house.  We believe learning should be fun and accessible for everyone and can be done with everyday objects! We also know parents are busy and don’t have lots of time to pull together activities so we keep things very SIMPLE! Check out some of our favorite activities like: Alphabet Lids, Calm Down Sensory Bottle and the Paper Towel Roll & Pom Pom Challenge.

Rainbow Salt Writing Tray