Sand Activities for Learning

Posted by Jul 17, 2017 Family Fun, Seasons, Summer, Toddlerhood

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Playing in the sand is one of the summer traditions that you can enjoy anywhere! Whether you are at the beach, or playing in your own yard, there are so many fun ways that you can turn playing in the sand into a learning experience. My daughter loves playing in the sand, and she has been having fun creating new games to play in her sand table. Some of her favorite activities in the sand box are to build volcanoes using a funnel (she is currently obsessed with volcanoes), and finding her Little People dolls and animals in the sand. She likes when I bury them while she looks away so she can use her tools to dig them up.

My daughter loves the sand, so her wonderful grandparents made her a fun sand table out of PVC pipes and a plastic bin. One of the best parts about this table is how easy it is to store. We can dump out the sand at the end of the year, and take the pieces apart to store in the bin. We can also adjust the height of it as she grows. Open creative play and easy storage? Yes, please! To really utilize the learning possibilities that this table gives us, I decided to reach out to other bloggers to find some fun sand activities that they have used to encourage learning.

Letters & Numbers

Spelling Practice with Kinetic Sandcastles – There’s Just One Mommy created this fun activity to help kids practice spelling words. She uses spelling tiles and kinetic sand to create a sandcastle full of letters. Kids have to search through the castle to find the letters needed to spell their spelling words.

Letter Recognition & Spelling – Mama Smiles uses sand, trays and chopsticks to give her kids practice with spelling, handwriting and find motor skills. This activity is great for all ages because they can practice their individual skills.

Creative Play

Story Inspired Sandbox Play – Books and Giggles uses the new book Little Excavator by the late Anne Dewdney (of Llama Llama fame), to encourage some creative sandbox play. She offers lots of fun activities that you can use to go along with the book.

Mini-Adventure Sandboxes – The Life of Jennifer Dawn uses photo storage boxes, small toys and sand to create mini sandboxes, all with their own unique theme. I can’t wait to create a few of these for my daughter to play with!

Related Reading: Learn How to Code a Sandcastle!

Science

Learning about Rivers & Erosion – There’s Just One Mommy used simple sand and water to teach kids about erosion, rivers, dams and ponds. This is an activity that you can do with kids anywhere, so you can turn your next beach day into a learning experience!

Animal Sand Play – Mother Natured used colored sand, cookie cutters and paintbrushes to explore animal shapes. These activities give you an opportunity to talk to kids about different animals and their characteristics, while allowing them be creative.

Sand Science – iGameMom offers different experiments that you can do with kids using sand, magnets, funnels and more. She offers suggestions on questions to ask your kids while playing in the sand too!

 

Sensory

Moon Sand – The Life of Jennifer Dawn uses simple ingredients you probably already have to create moon sand. Kids can use it to build or make shapes, plus it is just fun to run through your hands!

Sensory Sandbox – Preschool Toolkit uses pine cones, sand and tools to create a fun sensory box which can be used to develop fine motor skills and language skills. They offer playtime suggestions to get you started too!

Sand Slime – Little Bins for Little Hands put a fun beach twist on the slime phenomenon! By mixing a few simple ingredients, you can create a fun stretchy slime that kids will love to experiment with!

Related Reading: 12 Educational Sand Activities

Art

Sand Paint – Emma Owl mixes paint and sand together to create a textured paint that would be lots of fun to use when creating summer artwork.

Sandcast Starfish – Crafts by Amanda uses sand, Plaster of Paris and assorted items from nature to create this art project. This would be a fun way for kids to make a memento from their trip to the beach. You could also use this as an opportunity for kids to explore the natural elements found in their own backyard!

There are so many fun ways to use sand to create learning experiences. From art and creative play to language and science, there is a little bit for everyone. What fun games does your family play with sand? Share in the comments!

Keep kids learning in the summer months with these educational sand activities for kids! #SandGames #SandActivities #LearningAtTheBeach

Keep kids learning in the summer months with these educational sand activities for kids! #SandGames #SandActivities #LearningAtTheBeach

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68 comments on “Sand Activities for Learning”

  1. Love this!! These are great ideas…my kids love playing with sand butnI never realized all the different activities we could do with it

    • I hope you enjoy them! I didn’t have a lot of great science teachers growing up, so it is important to me that my daughter gets a lot of science education from the beginning!

    • I really like open ended activities to encourage my daughter to be creative, and also to watch her little mind at work!

  7. What is it about a sandbox? Just reading this totally takes me back to my childhood. I grew up with one in my backyard, and I wish I had a yard so my daughter could have one, too. We go to the park a lot to get lots of sand time in!

    • Playing in the sand with my daughter takes me right back to childhood days of playing in our green turtle sandbox!

  8. I’ve been wanting to make a sand table for months and months but I just can’t seem to make myself do it bc I know it will turn into a giant mess!

    • I definitely hate the mess that sand makes! I really like that this table keeps it a little more contained!

  19. such a lovely post. This reminds me of a mom looking for ideas for her kids whom she is homeschooling for a year. This post will help her sharing link to her.

  21. My daughter loves sand as well. I love your diy sand box idea (and yay for crafty grandparents!). I hadn’t thought of all the different ways you could do sand play but I’m definitely saving these for later!

  25. I love how you rigged up that sandbox! I will need to look into making the kids one 😊 Loving all these ideas too! Can’t wait for the weekend for hopefully a new sandbox and some great activities to go along with it

    • My daughter loves it! My parents had a lot of fun making it for her and now watching her enjoy it!

  26. We have been learning about the desert this week, and so I’ve used a few of these ideas (writing in the sand, etc.) with great success. I also like the sand cast idea…fun art project!

    • That’s awesome! I hope to do the sand cast one with my daughter someday when we go to the beach!

  27. Yay! I love these ideas! My husband made fun of my for filling a big container with rice and letting the boys play with their little sand shovels, but they loved it!

  29. These are great ideas, I just need to get past the eating everything in his hands phase and then I can start these activities. I love the sensory boxes that will probably be a starting point for my little Monkey.

    • Haha, we are still dealing with that phase sometimes! Every activity starts with me asking “what’s the number one rule?” and her replying “not in the mouth!”

  30. These are great ideas! How did the sand slime turn out? I will have to try that one with my slime-obsessed 3 year old.

  34. I still love sand myself and the kids have always loved playing in it. I am going to pass this along to my friends with younger kids who can enjoy it as well.

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