🌊 5 Ocean-Themed Tuff Tray Ideas for World Ocean Month & Coral Reef Day

June is World Ocean Month! 🌎🌊
And did you know? June 1st is Coral Reef Day! It’s the perfect time to inspire children with ocean-themed sensory setups in their favorite place to play— the tuff tray .

At Learning Through PLAYtrays, we believe sensory play can spark imagination, build fine motor skills, and teach children about the world around them—one scoop of sand or splash of water at a time.

Here are 5 ocean-inspired tuff tray setups by us that combine learning, play, and a splash of sea magic

Materials: Sand, water, blue food coloring, seashells, mermaid dolls

Scoop, pour, and pretend! Create a magical beach where mermaids sunbathe and swim. Kids can explore the feel of sand and water, build mini castles, and make up their own mermaid adventures. Add scoops and cups for extra fun.

Materials: Rainbow play silks, water spray bottle, small boats, number toys

Drape rainbow silks across the tuff tray and soak them with water. They turn into wet waves —cool, soft, and mesmerizing to touch. Add boats and sing “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” while pointing out colors and numbers. Great for calm sensory play.

Materials: Blue sand, white sand, letters 

Layer white and blue sand to create a shoreline in the tuff tray. Scatter plastic alphabet letters, or write letters using your finger in the sand. It’s a calming literacy station where kids can learn letters through touch and movement—perfect for preschoolers.

Materials: Colored sand or dyed salt, sea creature toys, seashells 

Mix your own colorful sand using fine white salt + food coloring. Decorate the tuff tray like a coral reef—add fish, sea stars, and pretend coral. Talk about colors, textures, and how reefs protect sea life. A playful way to explore ecosystems and fine motor skills .

How to Make Blue Rice:

• 1 cup white rice

• 1 tsp vinegar

• A few drops of blue food coloring

• Shake in a ziplock bag and dry overnight

Fill your small tuff tray by Learning Through PLAYtrays with this ocean-blue rice! Add sea animals, scoops, and shells for dry sensory play. It’s less mess, super satisfying, and reusable. Kids can bury animals, dig them out, and create their own mini sea scenes.

Download the FREE Black & White Sea Creatures instantly here. Just print, laminate and add it to your tuff tray! 

• Books to Pair With Your Ocean Tuff Tray:
  The Rainbow Fish, Commotion in the Ocean, Mister Seahorse by Eric Carle

• Songs & Rhymes:
  "Baby Shark," "Slippery Fish," and "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" all make playful learning connections.

• Simple Science Vocabulary:
  Use words like waves, salt, shell, coral, reef, deep, float, sink, and current to enrich language development.

While preschoolers may not grasp complex ideas like climate change or overfishing, they can learn that the ocean is home to many animals and needs our help. During play, you can say:

• “The coral is their home. Let’s be gentle.”

• “Some fish need clean water to live. What happens if there’s trash?”

• “Look how many colors are in the reef! Nature is like a rainbow.”
  
  

Sensory play is more than fun — it’s foundational. Activities that engage the senses (touch, sight, sound, smell, and even taste) help young children make neural connections and support cognitive growth. According to Harvard's Center on the Developing Child , rich early experiences like sensory exploration strengthen brain architecture in the early years.

Ocean-themed tuff tray setups provide multi-sensory learning experiences , offering opportunities to dig, scoop, pour, splash, and explore. These hands-on activities support a play-based curriculum , which is central to Reggio Emilia, Montessori, Waldorf, and HighScope approaches.

When it comes to sensory play, water is unmatched — it’s calming, accessible, and developmentally powerful. From a baby’s first splash to a preschooler’s pouring experiments, water play nurtures the senses in a way that few materials can. And best of all? It’s nearly always free.

Research shows that water play supports early learning across domains: motor development (grasping, squeezing, scooping), cognitive growth (cause and effect, volume), and even social-emotional skills (turn-taking, self-regulation). According to Zero to Three , water is especially valuable for children with sensory processing differences, offering both stimulation and calm depending on how it’s used.

Whether you fill a tray for a 6-month-old baby to swish their hands or set up a pouring station for a 3-year-old preschooler, every child connects to water. After all, we are made of water — and it’s one of the first sensory materials we experience. 

Just remember: all water play should be closely supervised.