Salt tray

I got out my salt trays for the first time this year - and it made me sad that I hadn't gotten them out sooner.  They loved them and were able to use them very responsibly.  First I decided to color the salt pink.  Then I put out heart cookie cutters and s stick for writing or drawing.  And since this was the first time they had seen the salt trays.  I put some patterns and words in the salt trays.  

They made patterns, pictures, and wrote words.  Salt trays are an excellent pre-writing exercise, especially for reluctant writers who need writing to be introduced and reintroduced with a lot of different mediums and experience.