It’s summer break and I think my kids ask me for ice cream every day.  Every day. Do you have this problem?  We’re not all about the sweet treats in our house, but I may be partially to blame because we are ice cream obsessed with all of our activities lately! Instead of eating the ice cream, we’ve been learning and playing. Our Ice Cream and Sprinkles Alphabet Writing Practice tray is a new favorite activity in our house, and my preschoolers would absolutely love it!  The writing tray can be adapted for different learning levels and it’s super easy to put together.

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Ice Cream & Sprinkles Alphabet Writing

Setting up this super inviting, super simple sprinkles writing tray takes no time at all! Here are the supplies that you will need:

• sprinkles (I think rainbow work best!)
• tray
• printable ice cream alphabet cards

Oh, and you’ll also need a child who is eager to play in sprinkles!  But I predict as soon as you start pouring the sprinkles into the tray, finding someone to play in them won’t be a problem.

Print and cut apart the ice cream alphabet cards from the file below.

Fill the bottom of your tray (or box top, cookie sheet, baking dish) with sprinkles.  You just need to cover the surface.  If you have leftover sprinkles in your pantry, those will work!  You can even mix and match sprinkles that you have on hand.

The sprinkles in the tray are as inviting as a sensory bin full of rice.  All 3 of my kids had their hands in them!

The basic goal of the Ice Cream and Sprinkles Alphabet Writing Tray is for preschoolers and kindergarteners to practice forming letters without the stress of holding a pencil.  This is a great way to strengthen fine motor skills while encouraging pre-writing skills.

We made a pile of the ice cream alphabet cards and one by one wrote the letter on the card in the sprinkles.  My youngest would write the letter with her finger.  Sometimes she would trace it forwards and backwards a few times, and sometimes she would just write it once and move on.

After the letter was drawn, she would take the ice cream alphabet card off the tray, give the tray a gentle shake to erase the letter, and get ready to play again!

Different Ways To Play!

If your child is ready to recognize and spell his name, add all of those letters above the tray for your child to practice.

If your child has mastered her uppercase letters, encourage her to write the lowercase letter that goes along with the ice cream alphabet card in the sprinkles instead!

If your child is ready to work with site words, spell those words above the tray to work on identification as well as writing the words in the sprinkles.

Even if your child is not ready to copy the letter in the sprinkles, just writing straight and curvy lines in the sprinkles is a pre-writing skill in its own!

Our writing tray was use for a long time and it’s still set up a few days later because everyone keeps going back to use it again and again!

Grab your ice cream alphabet cards by clicking the pink box below and get your Ice Cream and Sprinkles Writing Practice tray set up at home or in your classroom.

We’re slightly ice cream obsessed right now, so you won’t want to miss these activities!

Fine Motor Ice Cream Cone

Ice Cream Counting Play Dough Mats