With limitless opportunities out there to make and create no two days need to be the same. There are so many wonderful ways to be creative and lots of different canvas' to explore. A canvas that we LOVE painting on is shaving foam! It's such an interesting media and the patterns you can create are simply beautiful!
Before I share this activity with you I would just like to tell you that my daughter does suffer with eczema. I have made sure the shaving cream I use in our play activities is for sensitive skin. We have always done a patch test before playing to make sure the cream wouldn't irritate her skin. I always offer alternatives to paint with so there is a choice on whether to use hands or not.
It's not an activity I would use with young children who are still putting things in their mouth. Shaving Cream is not edible so this wouldn't be a safe activity for children who would possibly do this.
When doing any activity with children they should always be fully supervised.
You will need:
Tray
Paints
Glitter (optional)
Straws
Shaving Foam
Begin by squirting a layer of shaving foam into a tray. Spray until the bottom of the tray is covered over completely. You may wish to use a spatula to flatten out the foam. I didn't in this activity and as you can see from the first image it was rather bumpy - but still worked completely fine.
Add paint to the foam just as I have above. If your children are able to, I am sure they would love to add the paint independently. Today my daughter wasn't keen on doing that and asked that I did it instead while she finished off dancing to 'Let it Go' for the 100th time today <3.
We also added a sprinkling of gold glitter, which looked excellent sparkling against the coloured paints. The glitter does disappear once the painting gets underway however.
My daughter was very keen to get going with this sensory shaving foam painting activity. She used straws to swirl the paint and glitter around in the shaving foam.
You could use the ends of pens/pencils, twigs, spoons handles - anything that can be dragged through the cream. I would always have this option available as a stepping stone for children who don't want to use their fingers.
The trays we used in this activity were recycled from some sandwich platters I had ordered from a party. My other half thought I was mad washing them all out but they have proved to be excellent for our creative play! I love how they are see through - especially for activities like this!
As she pulled the end of her straw through the foam beautiful patterns were created. She looked down and watched as her actions made changes to the shaving foam canvas.
The swirls looked so effective and Little N was amazed at what was happening. She sat doing this activity completely enthralled. Once the colours began mixing together more, she used her straw to mix quickly. "I'm making some ice creams' she said.
Sensory Shaving Foam Painting was such a hit! It created intriguing patterns that were very appealing to the eyes, the scent of the foam smelt clean and fresh and you can even explore the textures with your hands and feet.
My daughter mixed so many times the finishing result ended up like this. The pretty swirls had long gone - however this result showed me the activity had been enjoyed, there had been learning and exploring going on and from that I could conclude this was a success.
She even offered to help me clean up afterwards! What a star she is!
If you would like to build on this activity we have used Shaving Foam to create printed hearts that we used for card fronts. We also created this activity on a much larger scale outdoors using a Tuff Tray. How have you enjoyed playing with shaving foam? Get in touch and share with us your ideas! We love seeing what you have been up to!
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