Writing letters in the sand

You will need…

• A selection of Gratnells trays
• Sand – you could also experiment with coloured rice or glitter
• Example letters to copy – ours are from Yellow Door

What to do…

• Line up your Gratnells trays either on the floor or a table and fill with a shallow layer of sand.
• Hand out letter or word cards to the children for them to attempt to write in the sand with their finger.
• Allow the children to repeat the process several times and practice writing each word or letter until they are feeling confident.
• You could extend the task by asking the children to move around the room and make words with their individual letters.

What you learn

What’s great about this task is that it allows the children to make mistakes and repeat a process until they are happy with the result, without having to cross out answers or tear pages from a notebook, which can often be deflating. The sand adds a fun element to helping the children to confidently and correctly write and learn their alphabet and the shapes of letters.

Health and Safety

As with all Gratnells Learning Rooms activities, you should always carry out your own risk assessments prior to undertaking the activities with children.