Spring Tuff Tray Ideas (Ideal for an EYFS Classroom or Home Learning)

ByLizzy Fraser Posted on Updated on

Are you looking for Fun and Easy Sensory Activities for your toddler or preschooler to do this Spring? If so, these fun Ideas are perfect for you! You can set up these Spring Tuff Tray Ideas at home, at a playgroup, or in a Preschool or EYFS Classroom.

Spring Fairy Potions

Personally, I set this one up in my garden on one of those lovely Spring mornings. Whilst it was sunny, it was still not very warm, so I kitted my daughter out in her waterproofs and wellie boots and she was off!

She loved exploring this Spring Tuff Tray, as she loves all things Sensory and hands-on. Since we were in the garden she was able to pick more flowers to add to this and vary her creations. Her imagination was away, creating fairy potions, medicines, special juice, and ‘doing science’!

A tuff tray in the garden set up with a spring potion station for kids. It includes a bowl of yellow water, flowers, little bowls and a soup ladle.

How I Set Up this Spring Tuff Tray

  • A bowl of water with yellow food coloring in it
  • A ladle, and some other spoons of different sizes
  • A few smaller bowls
  • Different Spring Flowers
  • A Vase with some flowers in
  • Tuff Tray

Learning Opportunities from this Tuff Tray

  • Fine Motor Skills [Pouring, Picking up, Mixing, Pulling apart flowers, Using a Spoon]
  • Maths [Counting, Measuring, More than and less than, Volume]
  • Colors
  • Learning more about the Senses [What do things Feel like, Smell like, Sound like, Look like]
  • STEM [Predicting whether flowers will float or sink and experimenting with mixing things]
  • Exploring the Season of Spring
  • Language Opportunities as children discuss what they are doing
  • Imagination and Creativity as they play

Spring Gardening Tuff Tray

Little kids often love the thrill of growing something for themselves. Sunflowers are a lovely, easy option for Spring gardening, and your Tuff Tray is the perfect spot to set up this activity.

I did this when I was childminding and my little ones just loved showing their pots to their parents at pick up time and taking them home to grow their sunflowers on the kitchen windowsill at home. I found this activity worked well for all my kids who were aged 18 months, up to 7 years.

A tuff tray set up in the garden with compost, little shovels, watering cans, sunflower seeds and planting pots and two pairs of little hands ready for gardening. An example of a spring or early summer tuff tray idea.
This Gardening Activity is so easy to do using your Tuff Tray.

How I Set it Up

  • A Pile of Compost
  • Small trowel or mini kids spades
  • Little pots (I used biodegradable ones, but you could recycle yoghurt pots for this too.)
  • Sunflower Seeds
  • Small Watering Cans

Learning Opportunities

  • Fine Motor Skills Practice [Scooping compost, Picking up small seeds, Patting down soil, Pouring on Water]
  • Learning more about the Senses [What do things Feel like, Smell like, Sound like, Look like]
  • Learning about Gardening and How Plants Grow
  • Learning about which plants
  • Practicing Patience as they wait for their plant to grow
  • Opportunities to practice measuring as their plant begins to grow.
  • Language and Vocabulary expansion

I hope you and your little ones enjoy these Spring Tuff Tray Ideas as much as we did, whether you’re at home learning, Preschool, EYFS, or School.

Let me know how you get on!

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Pin text reads, Easy and Cheap Spring Tuff Tray Ideas toddlers and preschoolers love! Image of a spring tuff tray set up with yellow water in a bowl with a ladle, bowls of daisies and buttercups and a vase of daffodils.