You can find many of the resources mentioned over in my Amazon affiliate ideas list here (click here for USA version).
Here are our favourite tuff spot tray ideas and activities for open ended learning through play
Hot Chocolate Station Tuff Tray idea
This is one of our all time favourites, using coco pops, mini marshmallows, sprinkles, cups, scoops and trays to fill and pour! Of course they will want to have a taste, but that is why this sensory tray play is so engaging! Add in mathematical language such as counting more/less, empty/full, count the marshmallows into or out of the containers. Encourage pincer grip development by picking up the cocopops. Set up a shop and introduce the idea of money and selling items. The opportunities for extension are endless. See the Instagram post below for more info...
Being a Builder Tuff Tray Activity idea
This was an activity we set up whilst our playroom extension was being built! Arthur had a builder's vest on and we used duplo bricks, diggers, shaving foam and squirty cream for the cement (in a tiny wheel barrow with a trowel!) and cornflour soil. lots of lovely, messy, builder play... This is a great problem solving tuff tray idea, learning through trial and error and finding different ways of doing things!
Chocolate Playdough Tuff Tray Activity idea
(NB if you would like my easy home made playdough recipe pop over to our Valentine's Day Tuff Tray here)
Rainbow Rice Tuff Tray Activity
We did this activity in a little sand tray tub outside, before we purchased our tuff tray ... Use raw rice for this activity, place it in a ziplock bag and either add a squirt of paint OR colour using gel food colours and a squirt of hand sanitizer. Mix it all around in the bag and then spread it out on a tray to dry before playing.
Messy Play Tuff Tray Activity
shaving foam, powder paint, cornflour and water...
Sticky Tuff Spot Tray Activity
I stuck tacky back plastic, or contact paper as it is also known, sticky side up onto the tuff tray. After walking on it with bare feet, Arthur collected natural resources from the garden to stick down. We used the tuf tray without the stand for this activity.
Digger destruction Construction Tuff Tray Activity
Seaside Tuff Tray Activity
A seaside scene set up for this tuff tray idea. See instagram info below for more information on this one... A bit of seaside tuffspot play this afternoon - focusing on different textures. We have bubble wrap, blue water inside a bag (great for squishing and splatting) brown paper, sand paper, glitter paper, seashells, pebbles and some miniature sea creatures. NB - for safety, the sand paper has been sealed with tape at the edges. This is now going outside in the sunshine - the final ingredient!!!
Potion Making Tuff Tray Activity
Clearly we are a little obsessed by the rainbow test tubes! Arthur loved filling them up using a pipette for our Rose activity (see previous) and he was desperate to do this again. I ordered a few extra bits to extend this activity, including these coloured pipettes and these plastic potion/mixology jars (great for spell making or perfume making activities too!!) . Today's activity of the day was to transfer the water from one coloured test tube to the same coloured test tube (we have 2 sets) using the right coloured pipette. Once this was complete he was then able to either use the pipettes to fill the jars or carefully pour the water from a test tube into a jar. . Great for motor control by attempting filling and pouring without spilling any (we've yet to master this!). Also really good for colour matching and really concentrating on the task, selecting and using the right equipment. . . The test tubes were an amazon purchase available here (al): and the pipettes and jars are both recommended products to go alongside the test tubes, so easy to find using this link. . If you are trying this activity yourself don't forget to model the language as you show your child how to do the activity...tiny minds take in this kind of information better when they are having fun and are stimulated to learn
Invitation to play: A little bit of open ended sensory play yesterday and today using the wooden resources I have been collecting....plus some 'string spaghetti', pistachio shells, dried lavender, dried herbs and spices and the contents of a few herbal tea bags
Invitation to play: Today's activity included lots of loose parts and shiny silver, bronze and stainless steel containers I have been collecting from the local charity shops π . The giant diamond π gems were a hit, and the pearls and beads in the smaller pot were a brilliant pouring opportunity. I'm not going to pretend that they haven't ended up on the floor, along with the sparkly shreds, on numerous occasions today! . Scroll across the photos for some close ups of the different parts. The silver tea set is definitely my personal favourite and I can't wait to get this activity set up outside in the water tray once the weather is a little warmer π¦ . So many learning opportunities with this, lots of new language, estimating, counting, questioning and using the senses
Some phonics stones all set up for Arthut to sound match the little animals - he loved this challenge! The pebbles are available in my Amazon store here.
LEARNING THROUGH PLAY - we’ve revisited an old favourite today, except this time Charlotte gets to explore. Lots of these resources are technically too small for a 1 year old but she loves to play with teeny tiny things and is developing her fine motor skills and pincer grip so this is a highly supervised activity! (Which suits her fine, she already pulled up two stools - one for her and one for me π) . Most of these resources are charity shop finds, a few are from my amazon store. . If you want to have a look in more detail, head over to my stories today to see a close up of play. I’ll add them to my EYFS highlights on my profile for later π
More info below on this activity, which involved a range of resources in order to melt the ice and rescue the pompoms....
You can find a whole blog post dedicated to the set up, resources and learning opportunities around this honey bees tuff tray activity here - honey playdough ideas, acting out the life-cycle of a bee using eggs, bee pollen, mini bees, honey and honeycomb tasting, counting and number ordering, Manuka honey ice pops, honeycomb biscuits and more
For more information on how to make your own sensory ice cream playdough, and set up this activity - please have a look at my post - ice cream role play for little people here
For more information on this tuff tray and the resources involved, please have a look at my rainbow test tubes tuff tray post here
Herbs and Spices Tuff Tray Activity
A lovely sensory play experience, using herbs and spices from the kitchen and the garden! This was so inviting, and was played with for days!
Invitation to play: A little bit of open ended sensory play yesterday and today using the wooden resources I have been collecting....plus some 'string spaghetti', pistachio shells, dried lavender, dried herbs and spices and the contents of a few herbal tea bags
Loose Parts and Shiny Things Tuff Tray Activity
One of our absolute favourites - lots of shiny resources and loose parts to explore and enhance language.... ( See my post on developing language for more ideas on this subject)
Phonics sound matching Tuff Tray Activity
A new little activity for Arthur today as he has been really interested in matching letter sounds to names and objects so I put lots of different mini animals on the tuff spot tray and made an alphabet rainbow with the sounds. We checked the sounds together first and I then demonstrated putting an animal underneath the initial sound before leaving him to have a go himself. He really enjoyed this activity and we ended up having to talk about the digraphs /ow/ and /sh/ as well as he wanted to know where he should put his owl and his shark π¦ . . These sound stones are something I used a lot in school so I bought some for home in lower case which you can find here (affiliate link) . The grass is some artificial grass that I cut to size to fit inside the tuffspot. . . This activity also doubles up as a small world role play activity, the sound stones just add an extra challenge for children who are looking to extend their play and learning.
Heuristic Play Tuff Tray
Lots of lovely, real life objects such as tea pots, silverware trinkets, cups, pots and sugar bowls, keys and jewellery for Charlotte to explore, fill and pour...
Wooden Resources Tuff Tray Activity
One of my favourite tuff trays, lots of wooden and natural resources to explore, scoop, fill, pour and play with - offering a language rich activity for young children when extended byn an adult...
Tufftray setup focusing on natural, mainly wooden materials...including painted wooden acorns, rainbow wooden discs, wooden beads, pots, containers and utensils and those amazing wooden eggs I showed you a few weeks ago π . This is for an open ended activity for both Arthur and Charlotte to explore independently (Although obviously supervised due to small parts) - I usually observe how they play and then extend their learning via questions, challenges or giving new language
Ice Melting Investigation Tuff Tray Activity
ICE INVESTIGATION - this was a fab activity for a 10 yr old, 4 yr old and 1 yr old to do together as they all accessed this in different ways. The challenge was to get the mini pom-poms out of the ice by figuring out how to make it melt as quickly as possible. There were lots of different resources available which you can see - including salt, sugar, coloured water, warm water and cold water and various tools. This is a really good activity to see how children can collaborate and work together, testing their ideas without worrying about ‘getting it wrong’. . . . NB: Ice applied to skin which has been in contact with salt can cause burns. Use a dispenser to drop the salt onto the ice from a height and observe without touching.
Honey Bees Tuff Tray Activity
Ice Cream Role Play Tuff Tray Activity
Colour Sorting Tuff Tray Activity
How fab are these plastic test tubes to provoke little learners!? There are SO many different possibilities for these but we've settled on colour sorting and fine motor skills for today. I was going to use jelly beans or smarties to make this super exciting, but I think I'll use that idea when the novelty wears off and I've got an extra pair of hands at home to deal with the sugar rush (hello husband that's you!) If you want to get a set of these for yourself they are available on amazon here (al*) : . The helping hands tools are available here
Cafe Role Play Tuff Tray Activity
For more information on this activity, including how to make the resources and which activities to plan, please have a look at my post on Betty's Cafe Tea Room tuff tray activity here
You can also view a video over on youtube of our cafe role play set up and a play demonstration towards the end:
Dinosaur Tuff Tray Idea
Whether you're setting up a dinosaur island tuff tray, a dino dig, bone excavation or looking at dinosaurs past and present - we've got you covered! Have a look at this dedicated Dinosaur Island Tuff tray idea post for all the details.
Frog Pond lifecycle tuff tray idea
A full on sensory frog pond experience, showing the full lifecycle of frog with hands on experience! Read the full post on my frog pond tuff tray for all the info.
Coffee Bean Tuff Tray Play
The most amazing smelling tuff tray play idea with so many physical and sensory learning opportunities! Have a read of my post all about this coffee bean tuff tray here.
The Snowman Tuff tray and activity ideas
Find the full post here in my Snowman tuff tray play ideas post with instructions on how to make your own snowman sensory ball too!
The rainbow fish planning and tuff tray ideas
You can find a full, dedicated post with planning linked to the rainbow fish tuff tray activities here.
Emotions and feelings tray
You can find out what to include in an emotions tray, and also how to make your own on the go worry bag in this post all about setting up an emotion provision area here.
Fairy Mark Making Tray Play
This Fairy Mark Making post here, gives you all the info you need to use this tray play idea at home to aid early writing skills.
Valentines Tuff Tray ideas
Here is my full post with resources and info: Valentine's Day tuff tray ideas
Pretend Food tray play ideas
If you're looking to make your own pretend role play food for tuff tray play then look no further! I have the perfect post and video for you here: How to make DIY pretend role play food
Felted Number Hearts Tray Play
Full tutorial on how to make these can be found here: How to make felted number hearts
Rainbow Spaghetti tray play
Instructions here on how to make rainbow spaghetti
Space tuff tray ideas
You can find my original instagram post with the info on this space tuff tray here.
Water Activity Station
Sweet Shop Tuff Tray idea
Frozen tray play idea
Halloween Tray play
More images of this set up can be found in the instagram post here
Pick a pumpkin Patch tray play idea
You can watch the reel video of this pumpkin patch in action here.
Conker rolling Tuff Tray idea
This is brilliant for autumn play - you can watch a video of how this works here. Simply put the tuff tray on an angle by keeping one side on the stand and taking the opposite side off. Roll the conkers ( or balls, or walnuts) into the number trays...
Unicorn tuff tray
More images of this unicorn tuff tray here.
The owl and the pussycat tray play
Cloud dough station tuff tray set up
I'm sure you can imagine, but you can see the aftermath of this one here
Loose parts and playdough tray play idea
Music making tuff tray idea
You can vide more closeup images of this tray set up here
Mermaid tuff tray idea
more images of the mermaid tuff tray here
Child - led tuff tray - ghostbusters
Being truly child-led allows the child to take full ownership, and here is what happened when I left our tuff tray free for my son to create his own set up!
Ice rescue tuff tray idea
Freeze animals in the ice can you set them free by helping to melt the ice? As an alternative, you can discuss climate change and talk about how to stop the ice melting to save the sea creatures
Lemon sensory water tuff tray idea
Small world loose parts tuff tray idea
Observational drawing tuff tray
Giving children the opportunity to choose their own mediums and subjects when creating artwork allows for so much more creativity and decision making processes than if you simply present them with pre drawn pictures and one type of resource to create with. Always remember: it is the process, not the end product that is important. By adding choices to the process and opportunities to take the activity in their own direction, by allowing children to think for themselves, we are teaching them that their ideas are important and that their independence in making those decisions is valued
Teddy bears' picnic tuff tray
(with thanks to messy monkeys for this one)
Shaving foam tuff tray idea
I implore you to go over to instagram and have a look at the aftermath photos before deciding whether to do this one yourself!
Fresh Flowers and petals tuff tray play
Christmas tuff tray
Baking tuff tray idea
Everything you need to make crispy cakes with your little one - all on the tuff tray!
Pompom colour sorting tray
Memory matching tray play idea
Memory matching card game - the tiles are so tactile for toddlers with the hole in the middle and so many interesting shapes and patterns to look at and explore! It has a good level of challenge when trying to find a matching pair ....although he did notice the two in the middle were the same straight away, saying "two mummy!" I think these will also double up as a great threading activity too! Next job: see if they will fit onto a kitchen roll stand!
You can find lots of resources over in my Amazon store to replicate these tuff tray activities and ideas at home: Arthurwears Amazon Store.
See more of my Sensory Play ideas here.
If you'd like to learn more about the importace of child led play and a playroom tour you can do so here.
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Would you like to know how to put together this desk hack for smaller tuff tray activities? You can do so over in my blog post here: ikea flisat for smaller tuff tray activities |
Sarah x
Looking for more? Take a look at my recent tuff tray - frog pond tuff tray showing the lifecycle of a frog, The Snowman Tuff Tray, or, if you are looking for some smaller tuff tray activity ideas, you can see some of my activity ideas using the Gratnells trays on our Ikea Kallax shelves.
Looking for more Play ideas for when you are stuck at home inside (here) ?
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