Sand, sand and more sand!

At Little Learners we LOVE sand. You can feel it between your fingers, close your eyes and imagine you are on the beach somewhere. Ok so, we might not be able to create miles of sandy beaches but we can create sand in our tuff trays. Sand is brilliant for messy play and a great resource for fine motor skills and building the strength in those little fingers. Over the years of running Little Learners classes, I’ve used sand in a number of different ways and ways which you could re create at home. Play sand is widely available in big supermarkets/ garden centres. I wanted to write this blog to help jazz up sand. I mean sand can be great on it’s own but sometimes you just need to jazz it up a bit and make it a bit different. Here are my top ways to use sand in messy play.

‘Cement’ Sand

This is my absolute favourite and it’s super easy to make. All you need is washing up liquid or bubble bath. I mix sand, water and bubble bath together. I don’t measure but just add a bit then mix it together and get a feel for it. Ideally you want it to be a moose texture/ feel. The children love it and it smells amazing too.

Coloured sand mark making

For this I use sprinkles of different coloured sand in a tray. Then I add lolly sticks and letter/ number and shape cards. A fun way to practise mark making. You could even do this with just plain sand or flour. To colour sand you (adults) could grate chalk into it. To be honest, I haven’t tried this myself yet but if you do give it a go then please let me know how you get on. Coloured sand mark making is perfect for pre schoolers and Year R children who are beginning to form numbers and letters.

Treasure!

For a themed class on ‘pirates & mermaids’ I hid treasure in sand. I found that a lot of gems/ play coins were too small for under 3s so I made my own. I cut out golden coins using gold card and shiny gems out of glitter card. I then laminated them. I hid the laminated pieces in the sand and provided the children with little spades to dig out and find the treasure. They loved it and an activity where you, as a parent can easily re hide the coins/ gems and the activity goes on and on.

Create a scene

This one is perfect for imaginary play and small world. In a tuff tray add sand and either coloured sand or another resources like compost to create a scene. You could link this to your child’s interest for example a beach scene, construction site with diggers or roads for cars. Here are a few examples of scenes I have created in classes.

I hope this helps you with a few ideas on activities using sand.

Have fun!

Thank you for reading.

Lene x

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