6 Hands-on, Play-based activities for Kids
Grab this week’s A Tray Full of Play printable pack for $4 HERE.
A little prep. A whole lot of play!
Welcome to A Tray Full of Play, a weekly series with six hands-on activities to help your little one explore phonics, math, and motor skills through play.
Think scooping, squeezing, counting, matching, building, and making marks. Simple materials, playful invitations, and plenty of opportunities for little hands to get busy!
Each week, I’ll share six activities set up on trays, along with a $4 printable pack so you can try them at home.
Why a tray?
I love a good tray! It gives materials a place to land, makes an activity easy to set out, and helps keep everything together when it’s time to put it away.
You don’t need anything fancy. A baking sheet, shallow bin, or tray you already own works beautifully. You can also set the activity up right on the table!
Want to try the trays we have? Grab them HERE.
Learning through play
These activities give children opportunities to practice early learning skills while they use their hands, explore materials, and try out their ideas.
Across the series, we’ll play with letters and sounds, explore numbers and patterns, and work those little hands through activities like hole punching, threading, rolling, and squeezing.
The printables are a starting point. The play happens when your child gets their hands on the materials!
How to use your weekly activities
Print the pages you need, gather your materials, and choose an activity to set out.
You don’t need to offer all six at once or complete one each day. Start with whatever catches your child’s interest. Leave a favorite out, repeat it throughout the week, or tuck a few away for another day.
Model how to use a material if needed, then give your child time to explore. They might use an activity exactly as you imagined—or come up with something all their own!
Keep it playful and adjust as you go. Offer fewer pieces, explore a smaller set of numbers, or add a challenge when your child is ready.
And before you sit down? Make room for movement! Jump, stretch, wiggle, or carry the materials over together. Body Before Brain is always part of our play-filled approach.
This week’s six play trays:
Build the Letter:
Grab a piece of play dough and press it into the tray. Want to make your own play dough? Check out our recipe HERE.
Print out the letter cards. Use all of them. Use just lowercase. Use the letters in your name. Use one letter at at time. Make it work for your child!
Trace the letter into the dough with a pencil. Fill your tray with beads, gems, small erasers or pom poms. Use them to smoosh and push the letter into the dough. Pull them out. Do it again!
Other ways you can use the alphabet cards:
build your name
match upper to lowercase
sort by upper and lowercase letters
sort by letters in your name/letters not in your name
hide them around your home: search + find
play Memory
Roll, Count + Snip:
Roll the play dough into small snakes. Use safety scissors and practice cutting the dough into small snips.
Roll the die. Count the dots and identify the number. Snip that many pieces of play dough.
Smoosh it back together and play again!
Punch + Practice
Print and cut out the hole punch mats. Identify the name of each shape. Use hand-held hole punchers to punch out each shape.
Want other ways to use these?
Use a crayon or pencil and color each shape
Color each card by making patterns
Sprinkle a thin layer of salt into a tray and practice tracing each shape
Trace the Numbers
Print out the number cards. Cut them out. Print out the rainbow salt mat, cut to size and tape it into your tray. Sprinkle a thin layer of salt on top of the rainbow mat.
Practice tracing the shapes. Trace them over the card, starting at the red dot. Then, practice tracing them in the salt tray. Shake it away and try again!
Other things you can trace in the salt tray:
letters
numbers
shapes
your name
sight words
doodles
drawings
Ten Frame Counting
Print out the ten-frame (or 5-frame) and number cards.
Tape the frame to your tray to keep it from sliding.
Go through each number and practice saying its name. If you have a beginning learner, pull out a few cards at a time.
Flip over a card, say its name and put that many small objects on to the frame. Always start at the star, move right, then sweep back down to the bottom left and continue on.
Other ways to learn + play:
Once they have built the number on the frame, ask, "Add one more. How many is that?" "Take one away. How many are left?"
Instead of using the cards, clap out a nuber (5 claps for the number 5). Have your child listen, count the claps and then represent that number on the frame.
Use the ten-frame. Once they represent the number, count the empty spaces. "You have 5. There are 5 empty spaces. 5 plus 5 equals 10."
Pattern Play
Print out the pattern mats. Remind your child that a pattern is something that repeats itself. Pick a card. Say its pattern (the colors that are shown).
Use dot stickers, dot markers, pom poms or crayons to extend the pattern.
Say the entire pattern once they are done. Point to each dot as you say its name.
Ready to fill your tray with play?
Grab this week’s A Tray Full of Play printable pack for $4 HERE.
Pair the printables with the materials shown in each activity, and you’re ready to get started!
Use what works for your family, repeat what your child loves, and follow their lead. There’s no need to rush through the activities. There’s plenty of learning in doing a favorite again!
Print. Set out. Play.
Looking for more ways to learn + play at home? Explore our at-home, play-based preschool curriculum—filled with hands-on activities to help your child learn through play!
Check it out HERE.
Comments