Where Play Meets Potential
Get out your play dough, kinetic sand, oobleck, clay, sand, or other sensory base, it’s time to learn some writing skills!
Nope, I did not make a mistake there. We truly can help support writing skills with little ones without using a pencil and paper. Children need lots of fine motor practice and development before they even pick up a pencil. Writing is a complex skill that requires strength, coordination, and repetitive movements.
Before a child learns to write they need to squeeze, tear, pinch, point, poke, and manipulate. So, what better way to do that than with a little fun and sensory play.
Children, especially toddlers, crave independence and power. If you only practice writing and fine motor skills with worksheets and paper and pencil type activities then you might have seen lots of power struggles and tantrums.
These types of activities are not developmentally appropriate for toddlers or even for some preschoolers. Yes, they give you a sense of accomplishment and pride in a finished product where they traced the letter H, but it did not allow for much learning and development compared to hands-on and open-ended sensory exploration.
Besides developing the fine motor strength, control, and coordination needed for writing, sensory play also offers toddlers and preschoolers learning and development in multiple areas.
They learn:
Wow, so much learning packed into a simple activity! You can learn more about the importance of sensory play in my post “What’s the Deal with Sensory Play?”
So, you are on board and ready to promote those fine motor skills necessary for writing through sensory play, how do you set it up to optimize that learning?
One way I have found that setting up play dough and other similar sensory bases in a way to support those skills is by putting the dough in ice cube trays, muffin tins or something similar. When you put the dough in a container like that, it supports or almost forces your child to reach for the play dough with a pincer grasp. The pincer grasp is crucial for holding writing utensils.
They can also reach with just one finger, but it gets away from a whole hand grab and focuses the strength and coordination on one finger at a time.
Keep scrolling to see how we played.
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I received this play dough kit from Play at Home Mom Co on Etsy.com and I will be completely honest with you at first I thought $21 was a little much for a kit that I could probably make myself. When I got the kit, it was smaller than I imagined, but it had lots of different types of Autumn loose parts.
But, wait, then we played! I had a whole new respect and admiration of this amazing sensory kit. Yes, I could probably find all of these items, but I would spend way more than $21 collecting way more than we needed to set up some simple activities for my toddler. It offers so many various textures, colors, and loose parts to explore. I am really happy I bought this kit and I’m excited to collect more.
I have featured some other sensory kits and many more unique gift ideas on my gift guide “Unique Gift Ideas for Toddlers,” so be sure to check that out if you are looking for gifts or just something new to buy to spice up life with a toddler.
Check out her Etsy store for loosely themed sensory kits that include princesses, Blippi, firefighters, space, safari, beach, letters, and more!
Ok, so the first way we set this up is with play dough inside an ice tray. I also hid the acrylic leaves in the play dough to encourage reaching and grasping.
Ruby (15 months) loved playing with the play dough and really wanted to eat the pine cones and the play dough. I made sure to closely supervise this activity. During play I observed Ruby reaching, poking, pinching, squeezing, and transferring the play dough and the loose parts. Lots of great fine motor work.
I only used a few of the loose parts, as I knew we could use the others with a different set up and have something new and exciting to keep the interest. If you want to extend the life of your toys, make sure you don’t put them all out at once (I know it’s hard with new toys) and rotate your toys to increase engagement. Read about how to start a toy rotation HERE.
The next day I set up the kinetic sand (or “magic sand”) in a mini muffin tin. I put it out with some new loose parts and some that we had seen with the play dough. The sparkly foam balls eventually were put away because redirection was not working to keep Ruby from putting them in her mouth.
There is always a fair amount of mouthing with toddlers and I usually handle this with redirection by saying something like, “That’s not for our mouths that’s for playing” or “We don’t eat that, we can squeeze it” (then model squeezing or give an alternative way to play). If your baby or toddler is really obsessed with mouthing, you may want to check out my “Edible Sensory Play Ideas.”
Other than the sparkly foam balls, Ruby did well keeping the items out of her mouth (again this was a closely supervised activity). We even took the items outside, put the magic sand in a big pile and used the stick to slice it, then we put some of the loose parts in water to extend the play even longer.
This kit is super versatile! But if you don’t want to buy a similar kit, you can easily find free loose parts in nature and at home to use. You can subscribe to get a free list of over 100 loose part ideas if you are feeling stuck or uninspired.
Related posts:
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Hope you have enjoyed these simple set ups and they have inspired you to support your child’s learning in a playful way. Please reach out if you have any questions!
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