Messy Play Trays and Accessories for Early Years

The humble messy play tray, sometimes overlooked but essential to early years messy play and a must have for classrooms and homes alike. 

Children use touch, taste, sight, sound, and smell to make sense of the world around them. This is why sensory play is a great way to support children in exploring and learning about how things work. A messy play tray is a great way to bring a bit of focus into their messy play, and we’ve got plenty of ideas you can use for messy play in your tray.

Choosing your messy play tray

When picking which messy play tray will suit your needs, there are a few things to consider - where you want to use it and how you want to use it are important. 

This great mini messy play tray comes with a stand, meaning children can play while standing up, giving them a full range of motion for exploration! The mini size means it can also be more easily stored, making it great for classroom use. This mini messy play tray also comes in green and blue, so you can pick the colour that suits you.

For a messy play tray that will grow with children, the black messy play tray with an adjustable stand is perfect. With three adjustable height choices, this messy play tray will see you through a range of ages, whether for classroom or home use. 

If you’re choosing any of the Tuff Tray messy play trays mentioned above, don’t forget to get a Tuff Tray cover, too. It’s a durable, lightweight, water-repellent cover with strong elasticated edges, so it will fit snugly on your messy play tray to keep it protected when not in use.

For a slightly more portable messy play tray experience, then this messy play table-top tray is the perfect fit. It’s a classic plastic desktop messy play tray with high sides to protect your tabletop. Its 50 x 70 x 15cm dimensions make it perfect for environments with limited space.

Sometimes, you might want to do something a little different with messy play, so you should look at the exploration light messy play tray. It’s a big art-sized tray that can be used on a tabletop and is designed to fit over an LED light panel. It’s made from clear polycarbonate, which means it can be filled up with water and moved without flexing. Children will love the added light effect when making patterns, drawing, painting, exploring textures or whatever else they want to explore with this messy play tray. You can also purchase the messy play tray and light together.

Multi-play messy play trays

Messy play is popular (no surprise there), so you may want to make the most of the Tuff Tray messy play bundle pack of three to ensure you’ve got no disappointed little explorers. 

Another benefit to having extra messy play trays is that you can set up different exploration stations, putting different materials to play with in the different trays. We have circle exploration messy play trays available in clear and multicolour. They’re on stands, which are an ideal height for children, but the trays can be removed to be used on tabletops or carpets.

Of course, if you’re going to be using your messy play trays with water in them, don’t forget to get a water play mat for under your messy play trays. This particular mat doesn’t let bacteria, mould, or fungi grow, making it the ideal anti-slip matting for messy play trays.

What to use in your messy play tray

Don’t install a messy play tray table without messy play toys and accessories to christen it.

We’ve got a large range of materials for children to explore and play within their messy play trays. These translucent rainbow jugs and buckets are perfect for explorative play with sand and water or colour mixing and matching. 

You can use simple tools such as pipettes, pastry brushes or wooden spoons. Or you can let children go with these foam paint bottles. You just add liquid soap and paint into these bottles and watch the paint foam appear in a textural and colourful wonder for children to explore.

Shop messy play trays and accessories now

We’ve got a range of messy play trays and accessories below that you can use for sensory play at a range of ages. If you’d like more ideas, you can read our Messy Play Tuff Tray Ideas for Nursery and Primary School blog, or get in touch with one of the Springboard team today for extra support.