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Home / Early Learning / Math / Robot Sensory Writing Tray with Free Printable Number Cards

Robot Sensory Writing Tray with Free Printable Number Cards

Shared by Mary Catherine Leave a comment

There are some early childhood themes that seem to resonate with almost every kiddo I’ve taught. Robots is definitely one of those themes. With that in mind, it’s always fun to come up with different hands-on, playful learning ideas around a specific theme. That’s how this robot sensory writing tray, and its accompanying number cards, came to be!

Robot number sensory writing tray with free printable number cards

Table of Contents

  • Materials for a Robot Sensory Writing Tray
    • Materials We Used
    • Prep
  • Number Writing Tray for a Preschool Robot Theme
    • How to Use the Robot Sensory Tray
  • Get the Printable Number Cards
  • Robot-Themed Preschool Lesson Plans
  • Even More Robot Activities for Kids

Materials for a Robot Sensory Writing Tray

Materials We Used

I may get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

  • Rice
  • Silver liquid watercolors
  • Silver glitter
  • Nuts, bolts, and washers
  • Larger hex bolt
  • Printable robot number cards (get your copy at the bottom of this post)
  • Clothespin
  • Glass gems
  • Pie pan

Prep

  1. Place the rice into a plastic bag or glass bowl. Add a few squirts of liquid watercolors, along with some glitter. Mix well. Add more if you want a deeper color. We just used a little bit, as we only wanted the rice to be a little grayish-silver.
  2. Spread the wet rice out on paper towels so they can dry. It didn’t take that long for ours to dry (I wandered off for about 30 minutes). Once it’s dried, the rice may be clumped together. Just break it apart and it should be good to go.
  3. Print out the robot number cards while you’re waiting for the rice to dry. I’d suggest laminating them for durability. We haven’t yet, as we wanted to get right into the number writing tray!
  4. Once the rice is ready, place a shallow layer in a pie pan (or another kind of tray). Add in some small nuts, bolts, and/or washers.
Robot writing tray with free printable number cards

Number Writing Tray for a Preschool Robot Theme

How to Use the Robot Sensory Tray

There are a lot of different ways to use this tray with the kiddos. Of course, I think that’s why I like it so much. Lots of open-ended, fun learning possibilities. Here are just a few ideas, with a focus on early math skills . . .

Use a larger hex bolt as a “pencil” to write the numbers. We attached a number card to the pie pan by clipping a clothespin to the card. Then we placed the other end of the clothespin on the edge of the pan. Then grabbed a hex bolt and got to writing. Using a hex bolt is akin to using a stubby pencil. It helps children practice and develop their fine motor skills, pencil grasp, and hand strength.

Robot sensory writing tray - explore numbers while strengthening fine motor skills

Use your pointer finger to write numbers. Again, this works on fine motor skills alongside number identification and numeral writing. It has the added benefit of additional sensory stimulation via the sense of touch through the skin.

Robot writing tray to practice numeral formation

Related: Learn How to Make Metallic Silver Slime

In case you’re wondering, it’s not going to be a perfect representation. The rice and other materials will settle back into whatever the kids write. That is just fine, as the point of the tray is to practice writing numerals. Just thought you should know, especially if you have any kids who want things to be just so.

Practice one to one correspondence with the robot sensory writing tray

Explore one-to-one correspondence with glass gems or bolts. Place the number card alongside the writing tray, on the side of it, or even in the robot rice. Use glass gems to represent robot “buttons” the kiddos can count out depending on the number card chosen. We went with red, as it stood out a lot better in comparison to the silver rice. We also used small washers and nuts on just silver rice (no additional nuts or bolts in it) to explore one-to-one correspondence.

Free printable robot numbers to use with a sensory writing tray

Get the Printable Number Cards

The robot number cards are available to Fun-A-Day’s email community. If you’re already a member, enter your email in the form below to have the printable sent to your inbox. If you’re not, that’s okay! You can enter your information in the form to join us, and you’ll get the number cards as a welcome gift.

You can also access the form in a new tab if you’d prefer.

Robot-Themed Preschool Lesson Plans

If you have some robot-lovin’ preschoolers, take a look at these plans for the preschool classroom and home preschool families. Each set has a week’s worth of lesson plans, full of hands-on learning activities about robots. There’s science, literacy, math, and more planned for the week, with ideas that kids can do in various grouping sizes. The plans also come with a book list, activity explanations, and printables that correspond with the hands-on plans.

If you loved the robot writing tray check out these robot preschool lesson plans

Even More Robot Activities for Kids

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT:

Name Puzzle Robot // Still Playing School

Robot Coloring Matching Clip Cards // Modern Preschool

Sensory Writing Tray with Robot Numbers // Fun-A-Day!

Beginning Blends Robot Puzzles // Mom Inspired Life

Robot Preposition Posters // Liz’s Early Learning Spot

Free Robot Bingo // Powerful Mothering

Robot Sums of Ten Puzzles // The Kindergarten Connection

Counting with Robots // Teach Me Mommy

Robot Subtraction Cards // The STEM Laboratory

Coverall Game // Recipe for Teaching

Robots CVC Word Puzzles // A Dab of Glue Will Do

Robot Reading Buddy // Play and Learn Every Day

Beginning Digraph Puzzles // Letters of Literacy

Robot Digraph Scratch // Adventures and Play

Rhyming Mats // Fairy Poppins

Robot Addition Cards // Playdough to Plato

Pattern Task Box Activities // My Creative Inclusion

Robot Beginning Sound Match // Sara J. Creations

Painting Brush Bot (Not Shown) // Schooling a Monkey

Robot Sensory Writing Tray - work on number recognition, one-to-one correspondence, and fine motor skills - free printable number cards

Filed Under: Math Tagged With: Free Printable, one-to-one correspondence, Robots

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My name is Mary Catherine, and I love to share meaningful {and fun} learning activities for kiddos! Feel free to browse and stay awhile!

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