Have you got a Tuff Tray? If you don’t then head down to B&Q and pick up a cement mixing tray, exactly the same thing for only £15 last time I checked! You can use them indoors and out, we mainly use ours outdoor as we have limited indoor space and it gets stored beside the shed easily. We’ve used our Tuff Spot for lots of different play ideas over the last couple of years and here are 5 of our favourite Tuff tray ideas.
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5 Tuff Tray Ideas
Coloured Spaghetti
Cook some spaghetti and separate it into different containers with some boiling water and food colouring to make colour baths, mix well and when cooled it’s ready to set out to play along with various pans and utensils. We use gel food colouring for a really bright colour. The boys loved this, but be warned you will have spaghetti all over your garden if your boys are like mine! Fortunately the birds are quite happy at eating up the bits I missed picking up!
Rice play
I blogged about this recently, but had to include it here as it’s so simple to set up and both boys played with it for ages! Read more about this rice tuff tray here. For even more fun you can colour the rice!
Painting with Flowers
This was from a while back, but O loved it so much I thought I would include it here. I covered the bottom of the tray with paper (taped down) and lay out some flowers and herbs and a small plate of paint. O used the flowers and herbs to paint the paper. If you have some big flowers like Gerbera’s then they would make some pretty cool prints.
Conker and Water Play
Simply a bowl of water, conkers and ice cube trays. O loved tipping the conkers into the water and scooping them out. Placing them into the holes in the ice cube tray and then repeating it over and over. Another simple idea, but it looks much more appealing set out on the tray!
Feet Painting
This one is good, but unfortunately a bit of a fail for me at the first attempt. I put too much paint on the paper and A kept slipping and falling over! So my tip to you is that you only put small amounts of paint dotted around the tray, not lots in a pile, that way they can make prints without slipping.
Yes they will get covered in paint. So try it on a warm day and have some water to play in after to clean up!
We have mainly used it for messy play, including this space tuff tray. However I’m going to start setting up some small play fun with them soon. I have lots of ideas, so watch this space for more tuff tray ideas! Also head across to Adventures of Adam for more Tuff spot ideas like this harvest tuff tray.
Let me know if you try any of these ideas!
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Sam says
Love these ideas. Always looking for new crafty activities to try outside and at least the mess is contained with these.
Mamavsteacher says
Awesome ideas – I’ve been eyeing up these trays for a while and think we might have to get one! #Letkidsbekids
Clare's Little Tots says
Love the feet painting!! We had our tuff tray out as well this week. I love how versatile they are. #ToddlerApprovedTuesday
Leandra says
Oooh I really need to get a tuff spot for the summer even though T is a bit older I think we can still get some good use out of one. Some fab ideas here.
Thanks for linking to #toddlerapprovedtuesday this week x
Becky, Cuddle Fairy says
Wow, those are some amazing ideas for fun, learning, exploring play! My kids love the water play best. The paint looks amzing, and the spagetti too. So fun! 🙂
Jenny Eaves says
Thank you, yes it’s great for containment (until the big one decides to move it and make a spaghetti cake under the climbing frame?!). 🙂 xx
Jenny Eaves says
They are great and well worth the cost! 🙂 xx
Jenny Eaves says
They are fab aren’t they (and if you ever need to mix cement, they’re great that for that too!!). The feet painting was lots of fun! 🙂 x
Jenny Eaves says
Thank you! T is the same age as O isn’t he? 3.5? O still loves using it for activities and will get another year or two of use from it I think. 🙂 xx
Jenny Eaves says
Thank you! Yes we love water play too, got another post coming up about that soon too! 🙂 xx
Tickle Fingers says
How much do I wish we’d had a tuff spot when the girls were younger. We had a great time feet painting outside once and there are still purple paint marks on the patio (even though paint was washable). If we’d had a tuff spot… Some great activities. Especially love the coloured spaghetti! #ToddlerApprovedTuesday Over from http://www.cookwithtoddlers.com/community
Beth Twinderelmo says
what a fab idea! We used one at a playgroup and used cornflower which the girls loved and also porridge oats. We need to invest for the summer!
Jenny Eaves says
Ooh, yes, I’ve been meaning to buy some more cornflour to make oobleck, thanks for reminding me to try it out! 🙂 xx
Jenny Eaves says
Thanks! We love the spaghetti too, I just love bright colours all mixed together! 🙂 x
Let kids be kids says
Fab ideas. These trays are great, I wish I’d known about them when my children were younger. I love all these ideas for so much exploratory play.
Thanks for linking #LetKidsBeKids
Jenny Eaves says
They are brilliant, we’ll hopefully get a lot more use out of ours! 🙂 xx
Merlinda Little ( @pixiedusk) says
Been meaning to get one for ages! Its really fun if you have it! #letkidsbekids
Jenny Eaves says
They are fab! 🙂 x
The Reading Residence says
We’ve tried some of these, too, and they are so much fun. My kids love it when the tuff spot comes out 🙂 x
Jenny Eaves says
Oh yes, there are frequent requests for it! 🙂 xx
Sara (@mumturnedmom) says
Great ideas, we’ve done most of them in some form 🙂 We love our tuff spot, although we haven’t used it much over the last few months… must start using it again (now that the weather is better!). #letkidsbekids
Jenny Eaves says
Oh yes, much better now we have better wether to use it! 🙂 xx
Mummy on a Budget says
Popping over from #LetKidsBeKids
It’s amazing just how many uses there are for a Tuff tray! I like the idea of painting with flowers. We also have sooo many conkers still hanging around from the Autumn!
Jenny Eaves says
Conkers would be great for rolling around in a box with paper and paint to make tracks! I love our Tuff tray too! 🙂 x
Meghan @ PlaygroundParkbench says
Such great ideas – I will have to look for one of those at Home Depot here in the US. Thanks for sharing at #WeLoveWeekends!
Jenny Eaves says
Thank you, I’m sure the Tuff Spot is in the US somewhere! 🙂