Easy Sensory Writing Tray for a Preschool Arctic Theme

This sensory writing tray is easy to set up and lets kids practice emerging writing skills. Plus, it’s perfect for a preschool arctic theme or a winter activity.

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Arctic-Themed Sensory Writing Experience

Winter tends to be a great time to explore snow, colder areas of the world, and animals that live in colder climates.

To jump into a discussion about the Arctic tundra, I put together a sensory writing tray for the preschool kiddos. It was a highly engaging activity, and we had some great discussions!

Learning goals for the sensory writing tray

While this tray can be used for a variety of activities, these were my main objectives for the activity:

Introduce the concept of Arctic animals and the Arctic tundra
Reinforce left-to-right progression when writing
Practice writing different shapes, lines, and letters
Give the children a tactile sensory experience
Get some conversations going about Arctic animals and writing

Materials we used

Kosher salt

Animals and igloo from Safari Ltd. arctic toob

Glass gems

Card stock

How to set everything up

I placed a small layer of kosher salt in a bamboo tray, with glass gems going into our favorite bamboo bowl.

I have a huge stash of white card stock cut into 1 1/2-inch strips, so I grabbed some of those.

Everything was set out on the table after I drew a few different designs on the strips.

How the children interacted with the sensory writing tray

The children were immediately interested in this new sensory writing tray!

When asked what I was doing, I told the kiddos, “I’m setting up an Arctic tundra tray for us to play and write in.”

This led into a quick back-and-forth about the Arctic tundra’s characteristics, as well as the different Arctic animals I had on-hand.

I let the children freely explore the materials to start off with. This way, they were able to get a real feel for everything.

It also gave me tons of time to chat with the children. Our conversation ran the gamut from Christmas presents to what snowflakes look like to the Arctic tundra to caribou-versus-reindeer, etc.

As we were talking, the children fully jumped into the materials. They scooped salt, dumped glass gems into the salt, told stories with the animals, and so on.

After the sensory exploration, we started getting into the mark-making aspect of the sensory writing tray.

First, I placed the igloo at one end of the tray, with an animal opposite it. A card with a pattern written on it was placed along the top of the tray.

We drew paths in the salt using the Arctic animals – we had them walk, hop, and swim to the igloo at the other end.

Sometimes we used the glass gems to mark the lines, as well. Of course, the kiddos created their own tracks and lines along the way too! Sometimes they used the animals, and other times they used their fingers.

Based on the children’s interests, we will definitely have the tray out for a few more days. I also talked with the children about creating a larger sensory bin using the materials next week.

Other ways to use this tray

This sensory writing tray could be used for a variety of other activities, too. Here are just a few:

Write letters, names, and words in the salt
Work on writing numbers in the salt
Write a number, and then add the correct amount of glass gems

How would you and your kiddos explore this sensory writing experience?

Arctic Preschool Lesson Plans

Save time and get right to the playful learning with our printable lesson plan sets. Each set includes book suggestions, printable plans, over 30 learning activities (both whole group and centers) related to the theme, and corresponding printables (listed below).

Get your Arctic Preschool Lesson Plans at Preschool Teacher 101 or Teachers Pay Teachers.

The preschool printables that come with these plans are:

Arctic Animal Sort – Animals that Live on Land versus Animals that Live in Water
Animal Puzzles (in color and b/w)
The Arctic Emergent Reader (3 versions)
Arctic Letter Puzzles (in color and b/w)
Number Cards 0-35 (in color and b/w)
Arctic Roll and Graph Game (in color and b/w)
Picture and Word Cards of Arctic Animals(in color and b/w)
Hungry Polar Bear Subtraction Game
Feed the Beluga Counting Game
Arctic Hare Shape Hop Board Game
Spin and Fill Math 10 Frame Activity (in color and b/w)
Snowy Owl Uppercase and Lowercase ABC Matching Activity (in color and b/w)

more tundra themed activities

Be sure to check out what the rest of the #TeachECE team has shared today:

Home-made Books: Tundra by Powerful Mothering

Arctic Animals Writing Prompts by The Educators’ Spin On It

Why Are Polar Bears White? | Animal Adaptations on the Arctic Tundra by Raising Lifelong Learners

Tundra Animal Sharing and Halving by Rainy Day Mum

Arctic Animal Matching Games by Life Over C’s

Arctic Animals Preschool Science: Blubber and Ice Explorations! By The Preschool Toolbox Blog

Science Fun-Learning About the Woolly Bear Caterpillar by Capri + 3

Arctic Preschool Letter Hunt by Learning 2 Walk

Polar Bear Sound Activity by Growing Book by Book

Sensory writing tray that is perfect for a winter or arctic preschool theme - lots of sensory input and tons of room for practicing important early writing skills