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At the Beach : Salt Tray Imaginative Play.

Posted on June 4, 2013 7 Comments

This fun beach themed small world play is easy to set up and lots of fun!

Whether you are learning about the beach, or just wishing you could visit, this beach salt tray imaginative play set up is sure to be a hit with your kids!

The Beach - coloured salt imaginative play scene

The big kids had all gone off in different directions and left Noah behind.

He didn’t like it, not one bit.

Big fat tears ran down his cheeks as he told me “they don’t want me”. I had to smile as he usually has his older siblings wrapped around his little finger so on the odd occasion when they want a little space, he can’t understand at why they don’t want to be at his beck and call any more.

“Come on” I said “Lets do something new.”

The idea of something new and different made his eyes light up and he wiped his tears away and followed me into the kitchen.

I had an idea… I set aside dinner and found two old containers, two spoons and some food colouring. I had his full attention now.

We dug around in the back of the cupboard and found the bags of salt Daddy had bought home from work. The Father Figure makes medicine for a living and if the whole packet of medical grade salt is not used they have to throw away the rest, and sometimes he brings it home for us to play with.

I dumped the salt into the containers and then emptied the blue food colouring in one and the yellow in the other. Then we stirred.

Just as the salt was beginning to change from white to coloured the girls wandered past… “Oooh what’s that? Can we help?”

Everyone had a stir and they chatted about what we could use the blue and yellow salt for.

“It could be the beach and the sea!”
“Yeah! Lets get some sea animals, come on Noah”

And off they went to dig through the bucket of animals looking for thing that live in the sea or on the beach. They also hunted out some rocks and shells and sparkly glass stones while I emptied the tub (we use a cheap under-bed plastic container) from our last imaginative play scene and set it on the table.

The Beach - coloured salt imaginative play scene

Then Morgan came in… “Oooh Can I play?”

Soon the four of them were busy around the tub and I went back to pealing the potatoes.

The Beach - coloured salt imaginative play scene

I smiled as I watched and listened to them play.

The Beach - coloured salt imaginative play scene

Just a little while earlier they had all declared their desire to be ‘alone’ and yet here they were back together again. Effortlessly the four of them were making up stories, working together, negotiating, sharing. There was a seal call Jeremy who I thought was particularly amusing.

The Beach - coloured salt imaginative play scene

As I watched I marveled at the simple pleasure that imaginative play brings my kids and wondered how much longer the nine year olds will be enthralled by this kind of activity. I hope, in this respect at least, that my kids are just like me, that they will always love a bit of imaginative play, no matter how old they get.

The Beach - coloured salt imaginative play scene

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Filed Under: Activities for kids Tagged With: activities for preschoolers, activities for toddlers, imaginative play, sensory play

Read the comments or scroll down to add your own:

  1. Caz says

    Love this post, the coloured salt looks great as water and sand! Had to smile that the kids all ended up playing together after all, so sweet.

    Reply
  2. [email protected]aughingKidsLearn says

    This is an adorable post Kate. I am the youngest of three sisters with a 8 year gap between me and my next eldest. I remember them often wanting me around but feeling shattered when they didn’t. Your darling little boy. What a wonderful way you went about not just making him feel better but bringing all your children together. Great post. Salt activities are awesome.

    Reply
  3. JDaniel4's Mom says

    This looks like so much fun! I love all the little details you added to your bin.

    Reply
  4. [email protected] says

    Loving all these clever and creative ideas with salt. So sweet how your activity brought them all together to play! Thanks so much for including our salt activity too x

    Reply
  5. Ness @ One Perfect Day says

    How beautiful that everyone was engaged and working together – and no wonder! That tub is gorgeous. I want to play too! Thanks for including our salt painting in your round up.

    Reply
  6. Sam @ Thrive 360 Living says

    I love that you used salt for your lovely imaginative play world. Such a great idea and so sweet to see all of the kids enjoying it together. When I make an imaginative play world for my son, I enjoy it just as much as he does.

    Reply
  7. Emma (My Little 3 and Me) says

    Oh this looks super. I love that the older ones still like imaginative and sensory play too.

    Reply

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