Messy Farm Play on the Tuff Tray: Toddler Sensory Ideas

Life with little kids is super busy, especially if you have toddlers! I have found that setting up my Tuff Tray with fun toddler sensory play activities, like these messy farm animal play ideas, has been great for getting my kids happily playing independently while I grab a much-needed cuppa!

Both my kids and the toddlers I childmind all love these messy farm play ideas. They are so versatile and use items we already have at home so they take barely any preparation time. One of them can be ready in 2 minutes!

Sensory Play provides so many benefits for our toddlers. Since becoming a childminder, I have learned more and more about the value of messy activities and how much toddlers learn through these types of activities.

If you’re unsure of what exactly ‘sensory play’ is and how it can benefit your kid, it’s worth a quick read of, What is Sensory Play and Why is it Important?

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I just absolutely love my Tuff Tray. It is perfect for this kind of messy, sensory play.

If you’re considering whether it’s worth getting one yourself, take a look at, Is it Worth Getting a Tuff Tray? A Mom’s Honest Tuff Tray Review.

Alternatively, if you’re already sold on them but not sure which to go for you can grab the Tuff Tray we use, from Amazon, here.

Farm Animal Messy Play Ideas for your Toddlers’ Tuff Tray

Real Mud, Messy Farm Play on the Tuff Tray

This Farm Play is a great one to set up in the garden.

I love it because the kids can help me set it up and can choose what they want for their play each time. They love this sense of independence.

There are so many variations you can do with it as well.

Collect items from around your garden or nearby park, or take some things home from a park or beach visit to add to it.

We used some soil and poured on lots of water to make it into nice, squelchy, mud! Then we found some pebbles and made a little pond area.

There was a grassy area, a little flower bed section, and some sticks in the corner. We grabbed some Weetabix from the kitchen to make our fences, as we were a little short on sticks that day!

My daughter (4 years old at the time) enjoyed choosing things and creating this as much as she liked playing with it, to be honest with you!

It was fairly easy to clean up too, as we just tipped everything into the bushes and then stood the tuff tray on its side and used a watering can to rinse it down.

Sticky Messy Farm Play (Ideal for Toddlers!)

This one is a favourite in my house and can be done inside or outside.

We used some bran flakes for the crunchy texture and made our mud in about 5 minutes.

To make the mud, I just mixed flour, cocoa powder, and water until I got the desired consistency. It’s the simplest recipe out there! A big bonus, as far as I’m concerned!

Then I popped a big bowl of bubbly water on the Tuff Tray so they could clean the muddy farm animals too. This was very popular with the toddlers I childmind.

They took great delight in getting the farm animals as muddy as possible and then washing them clean before starting again! Mixing the cereal, mud, and water was also a fun part of this activity for them.

* Although all the ingredients in this are edible, health professionals advise against eating raw flour, even a small amount, as it can make you sick, so it’s best to discourage your little one from tasting this!

Taste-Safe Sensory Farm Play Idea

This is one of my favorite indoor tuff tray ideas for toddlers (and my 5-year-old too!)

It is the easiest to set-up and clean away at the end.

Just tip whatever cereal you have to hand onto your tuff tray and grab your farm animals, trucks, tractors, and diggers! Then just sweep it up at the end in about 5 minutes.

This can easily be varied each time you set it up, as you can use different variations of cereal. Sometimes we use rice crispies, or oats, cornflakes, cheerio’s or muesli.

I aim for contrasting textures to make it more interesting.

This is the quickest and least messy of my Farm Animal Tuff Tray ideas, and therefore probably the one I set up the most!

Seasonal Farm Play Sensory Ideas

Autumn Farming Tuff Tray

This Autumn sensory farm play was quick and simple to set up in my Tuff Tray.

I used cocoa pops for soil and put some carrot tops on it in rows, ready to be harvested by the farmer with his tractor.

Linsead made great ‘mud’ for the pigs and provided a different texture to explore.

My little ones just loved squishing the different textures between their fingers and mixing them together. They enjoyed collecting all the carrots in the back of the tractor and feeding the animals too.

This provided a great opportunity to talk about what farmers do in Autumn and the different seasons.

If you’re interested in seeing more Autumn Tuff Tray Ideas check out, Autumn Tuff Tray Ideas and Sensory Play Activities for Fall.

Christmas Tree Farm Tuff Tray Idea

This Christmas Tree Farm set up was deceptively easy to create!

I had planned on using salt or perhaps icing sugar for the snow, making it a taste-safe messy play activity.

However, my daughter requested that it not be ‘too messy’ today! Words I never expected to hear her say! I think she just didn’t want to wash her hands at the end of it!

So, today we used rice to make the snow and, I have to admit, it was less messy and easier to clean up.

I used my hands to clear the ‘snow’ for a road, and then added the tractor and trailor, cars, model Christmas trees, and duplo figures.

I used an elastic band to attach the Christmas tree to the car when the people chose their tree!

This was a great fine motor activity for my daughter who enjoyed putting the trees on and off the cars and learning how to use the elastic band.

If you’re looking for some interesting and engaging fine motor skills activities for your little one, you can find more on, Fine Motor Skills Tuff Tray Ideas for Preschoolers.

Why Your Toddler will Love Messy Farm Play

• It’s interesting

• It can be personalized to their preferences (They want a dinosaur farm, why not?)

• It’s ready in under 5 minutes

• They can help set it up

• They can use their imaginations

• They can get as messy as they want

• They can taste it (if you’re doing the edible farm play option)

What Your Toddler will Learn from these Farm Animal Tuff Tray Ideas

• Aids brain development

• Encourages creative thinking

• Engages their imaginations

• Promotes language development

• Encourages problem solving

• Fine Motor skills practice

• Small World Play helps them learn about the world around them

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I hope that you are finishing this filled with inspiration and lots of ideas to get you started creating your own Sensory Farm Play for your toddler.

Messy Farm Play is such an easy tuff tray activity to set up and it holds their attention for such a while.

Sensory play has so many benefits for our little one’s brain development and their fine motor skills. I just love that it is so easy to get started with it.