10 Tuff spot activities for toddlers

10 great tuff spot activities to keep toddlers entertained

Some people associate tuff spot trays with builders tray. The large octagonal shaped tray is a great resource in helping provide stimulating opportunities for toddlers. Many early years settings use tuff spot trays as they find these to be a great flexible resource. If you are wanting to raise the tray off the floor you can purchase different height stands. Tuff spots are very durable and can be used for many different activities. The tray is an ideal shape for a group of children to engage in shared play, developing their social skills as well as the communication and language skills.

As they are so many ways to use a tuff spot why not try our 10 great tuff spot activities for toddlers;

• Mark making in sand- Fill your tuff spot with sand and provide the children with various mark making implements, also encourage them to use their fingers and hands to make marks.

• Build a car track – Why not add your happy valley car track or you could use a brio train track to the tuff spot tray. Add cars and small world people so that the children can use these to help develop their imagination skills. This activity is also great for developing children’s social skills as they can easily play with and alongside other children.
• Cornflakes- Add cornflakes to your tuff spot trays as well as various containers and utensils for the children to use. As the children are filling and emptying their containers they are developing their hand-eye coordination skills as well as learning some simple maths concepts eg more or less.
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• Shaving foam and cars- Squirt some shaving foam into the tuff spot tray and let the children take the cars on a journey through the shaving foam. Watch the amount of marks the children make with their cars.
• Car garage – Place your car garage in the tray, add some cars, water, bubbles and sponges. Encourage the children to use the sponges to wash the cars as they go through the garage. This activity is simple but very effective and children will spend hours washing the cars.
• Mini beast hunt in saw dust.- Fill your tuff spot with sawdust and bury some mini beasts in the sawdust. Why not add some natural objects eg log,s branches etc to hide the mini beast under. You could swap the sawdust for mud.

• Cooked spaghetti – Cook some spaghetti. You will need to cook a couple of batches of spaghetti. Add the spaghetti to the tray and add utensils for the children to explore the spaghetti. To extend this activity further why not add some squirts of paint for the children to mix into the spaghetti to create different coloured spaghetti.
• Water play – Place five frogs or five ducks in some water in a tuff spot and use these to incorporate songs as well as providing children with the expereince of water play.
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• Under the sea scene – Using blue and green material place this in the tuff spot and add under the sea creatures. You could always add some water to the tray.
• Dinosaur swamp – Place sand, shaving foam and lentils in sections within the tray. Add a bowl of coloured water in the middle and position dinosaurs around the tuff spot. Children will love this activity you could even read the story of The Dinosaur Stomp.

To check out more tuff spot ideas visit our pinterest page.