So What Are Tuff Spots?
Tuff Spots, Tuff Trays or Messy Trays, are basically just large trays with sides, that are filled with fun stuff for kids to play with. It may not sound all that amazing, but it’s so easy and kids love them so much, and you can make so many imaginative fun things in them, the possibilities are endless! All you need is a large tray, that’s it, then just fill it with various stuff from around your home, and switch it out when you want something else. Simple! Some of these activities will be best done outside, so it makes less mess.
Here are 10 of the best ideas we found for inspiration:
1. Colourful Spaghetti And Scissors
So easy, just half cook some spaghetti so it’s still firm, put it in a bowl, add just enough oil to coat it, then a few drops of food colouring and mix well. Let it dry for about an hour and it’s done. Make a few different colours, and add kids safety scissors for cutting fun
2. Sand And Pipes
Simply add a load of sand, and a load of different plastic plumbing pipes that can be connected together and sand poured through
3. Dinosaur Swamp
Add water and mix in some green food colouring and flour for the swamp. You can then add piles of other things such as lentils or rice as islands in the swamp, sticks as logs, and toy dinosaurs to play with
4. Bubbles
Make a bucket of water and soap with some sponges and paintbrushes in, and ask them to wash the messy tray, they can then play with the soap and sponges and also draw on the trays with their fingers or paint brushes in the soapy bubbles
5. Jelly
Make lots of jelly shapes, in different colours and maybe even different shapes, like balls, bowls, cups, anything, you can even put pretend animals in the jelly before it sets
6. Water
Add water, then add pretend water loving animals
7. Flour
Add lots and lots of flour, and diggers to play with it
8. Shredded Paper
Make lots of different coloured shredded paper to play in
9. Slime
Make slime by adding a 250ml bottle of squeezy glue, mixing in a few drops of food colouring, then a tablespoon of baking soda. Mix it really well so the colour is how you want it as it’s harder to mix later. Then add 1.5 – 2 tablespoons of saline solution until it’s as thick as you want it (the more you add the thicker it gets). You can then add some pretend animals to play in it. Note – if it gets in anyone’s hair rub in some coconut oil or olive oil and comb it out
10. Snow
Make lots and lots of snow, by mixing equal parts of cornstarch and baking soda, then adding water bit by bit and mixing each time until it sticks together enough to be able to make a snowball out of it, then fluff it all up with your fingers. You can then add ice cubes, and pretend snow loving animals to play in it
Hope you have so much fun!
