Fish Number Writing Tray

Sensory writing trays are incredibly easy to set up, can help develop fine motor skills and provide hours of entertainment. Our Fish Number Writing Tray took seconds to assemble and was a fun way for Adam to practice his number formation.

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Resources needed for the Fish Number Writing Tray

* Melamine fish shaped platters. Ours were purchased from Sainsburys last year but they have similar ones this season. Amazon also sells similar ones in blue or white

* Table Salt

* Blue Jumbo Chalk

* Grater – we used a Mini Grater

* Fish numbers (optional) – we recycled the fish numbers used in our Odd And Even Number Fishing activity

How to set up the Fish Number Writing Tray

1. Grate the Jumbo Blue Chalk directly into the Table Salt container. Our mini grater was the perfect size and Adam was able to do this independently.

2. Close the Table Salt container and shake well. This will turn the salt blue.

3. Pour the salt into the fish shaped trays.

4. Place the cocktail bowl, magnetic numbered fish and fishing rod next to the tray.

How to play with the Fish Number Writing Tray

I gave Adam his rod so he could go fishing for a magnetic number fish. This meant the numbers would appear in a random order and he couldn’t skip the tricky ones.

Having caught a numbered fish, Adam then used the other end of the fishing rod as a mark making tool to form that number in the coloured salt.

Adam had the choice of using with the round fish platter or the long fish platter. Sometimes he even wrote the number in both fish – double the practice!

After he had written the number in the coloured salt, Adam gave the tray a gentle shake and went fishing for another numbered fish.

Adam was determined to write every numbered fish that was in the cocktail bowl. The activity kept him entertained for ages and his number formation improved immensely. Tidying up the activity was also straightforward. We simply poured the coloured salt back into the Table Salt container to be used for another day.