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! as an early years teacher i am always keen to place a heavy emphasis on learning through fun, creative and playful ways that dont 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! 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.

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. 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. 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.

We 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. There 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. These luxurious stationery sets are the perfect canvas for expressing sentiments in a memorable way. They are truly beautiful and high quality! all the designs contain faint lines for an easy magical handwriting. fairy art writing paper sets. these sets include 10 sheets of standard a4 sized paper and 5 dl sized envelopes and they are all full illustrated. The fairy stationery sheets are made from french handcrafted and textured stationery paper.

They are sold in a beautiful package with a matching organza ribbon and a flower. fairy art letter pads. the letter pads come with a beautiful illustrated soft cover and a plain thick back cover for easy writing. All fairy art and fantasy art letter pads and envelopes are printed on full vibrant colours. please click on the images to view product details or to purchase size: a5 writing paper x 10 amp a6 white envelopes x 10 writing set printed with my original artwork on quality hi white super smooth 100gsm a5 paper complete with white diamond flap envelopes, sealed and presented in a protective cellophane bag.

Ideal as a present or for your own personal letters, notes or to use as invitations and thank you's. Item will be sent in a please do not bend hard backed or card reinforced padded envelope. This item will be dispatched from 'daisywings' within 3 days of receiving payment, uk orders will ship royal mail 1st class, international orders will ship by royal mail, international standard, airmail.