We love playing with sensory bins but setting up a sensory tray is a nice change, especially when it’s with one of our favorite sensory bases, salt, like with this Purim Salt Tray! Read your favorite Purim book and add whatever Purim symbols you have around the house and you have a really fun, meaningful Purim learning and sensory experience!
What You’ll Need
- Tray
- Salt (I used 5 cups for this tray but could have gotten away with less)
- Food coloring (optional)
- Purim symbols (we used our Purim peg dolls, crown confetti, horse figurines, jewels, polymer clay hamantaschen, mask and grogger)
- Scoops
Putting It Together
- If you want to color your salt, add some food coloring to a ziplock bag then add the salt. Close the bag and smush the salt around until the color is evenly distributed.
- Spread the salt in your tray.
- Add your Purim symbols and scoops.
- Read your favorite Purim book, if you’d like. We love The Purim Chicken!
- Enjoy watching your kids explore, play, and have fun!
Finished & Loving It!
I set up this Purim Salt Tray while the kids were at school so they came home to a fun surprise! It was so perfect for some after-school decompression play. Using salt as a sensory base is a really lovely experience. The salt is soft and cool and easy to move. If you haven’t tried it out yet, you definitely should!
I already had most of the Purim symbols I used for this Purim Salt Tray already on hand. I love buying materials that can be used year after year, like the crown confetti. Last night I did quickly make the polymer clay mini hamantaschen, grogger and mask so those symbols could be represented. I love using felt hamantaschen in sensory bins but I thought the salt wouldn’t work so well with the felt. Same with the wooden groggers I usually use–I like being able to actually use them as noisemakers and I didn’t want the salt to get stuck in the spokes!
Over the weekend I painted my first peg dolls so we could have Purim peg dolls for our Purim play! I love them so much! The peg dolls are from Woodpeckers Crafts and are so easy to paint and customize for your own Purim (and other!) fun! Use WithLoveIma5 for a discount on your next purchase–they have so many amazing craft possibilities on their site!
I always love watching my children play and this was no different. They explored the sensory textures, scooped and poured the salt to hide the various symbols, and created beautiful imaginary scenarios by acting out the peg dolls and horses. So many amazing play opportunities with one small tray!
And of course we had to read our favorite Purim book as they played! Are you a fan of The Purim Chicken? We love it so much!
We also have an entire Purim Activity Bundle ready for your Purim learning and exploration fun! Check it out in the With Love, Ima Shop or on Teachers Pay Teachers.
Check out our recommended Purim books from our Bookshop.org Shop!
The following sites are amazing resources for learning more about this beautiful holiday:
Chag Sameach!!
Looking for delicious Mishloach Manot ideas? Check out Nuts.com! So many nuts, dried fruit, and sweets. YUM!
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