Salty Letters and Words

Writing letters in salt. You’ve probably seen it on Pinterest or (like me) known someone who tried it with their kiddos. We tried it today.

I had to work myself up to it. I knew I would really have to be in the right frame of mind for an activity that would end with salt everywhere. I would have to be willing to accept the mess.

Which, if I’m being honest, wasn’t too difficult a decision. My kitchen is already a disaster of dirty dishes, sticky counters and forgotten toys. What’s a little salt on the floor?

The activity kept both boys busy for 40 minutes.

That’s right. A whopping 40 minutes of undivided and focused attention to the task of writing letters and words in salt.

Joe said the letters of the word out loud and I read the sample sentence underneath. Before long, he was saying the letters with no prompting.

And, once I told him what word the letters spelled, he was making up his own sample sentence–and using the word correctly in the sentence.

The best part? He was having a blast doing it.

Jake was having fun too. He needed a little more help at first, but then he quickly got the hang of it. While he couldn’t quite draw the letters accurately, he recognized and said them out loud.

After about 20 minutes of letters and words, Joe asked if he could write numbers. I hurried to get the number flashcards out. I didn’t want him to lose interest.

I had him write the number with a few. Then I asked him to count the pictures on the back of the card and then write the number.

Success! He was able to write almost every number. The number 8 was a little crazy.

Jake enjoyed the numbers too. He was able to recognize most numbers I gave him, but writing them was a bit of a challenge.

Joe, after writing the number “7”, asked if he could go back to writing the words. He wrote a few and then started to draw pictures in the salt.

The drawing below, he said, was Mommy.

I guess Mommy is having a bad hair day.

Soon after, the rice krispie treats on the counter captured his interest and the activity came to an end.

I saved the salt in a baggie. I just know he will ask to do it again.