This activity is a spinoff of writing or drawing in the sand. Depending on your child’s age and stage, you can take on a more exploratory approach or if your child is more advanced, you can gear this activity towards writing letters or numbers. Writing or drawing in salt with one’s fingers is an excellent and tactile way for children to feel the making of a letter or a number. You could also practice drawing shapes, lines or just doodling. 

 

What You Will Need 

-salt or sugar

-a tray (or a small baking sheet or pie tin) 

 

Preparation 

Using salt or sugar, spread a layer over a small flat tray. 

 

Engaging with Your Child 

To begin this activity with your child, introduce the materials you’ve prepared, “This is a tray with a layer of sand. Let’s see what letters we can draw in it.” While your child is trying to write a letter, you could encourage their work, “You wrote the letter O.” You could also pose a challenge to introduce letters that are new for your child, “Your name starts with C. Let’s try writing a C.” or “Can you try the letter M? M is for Mom and mouse.” Tip: If your child can write some letters already, it may be a good idea to have some words or your child's name written out on a piece of paper so that they have a reference to work from.