Shaving Cream: Sensory activity for preschoolers (2024)

Shaving Cream: Sensory activity for preschoolers (1)

Here’s a moment of mothering honesty: my kids have watched way, way, way too much TV in the last few days. It was the end of Daddy’s winter break from school, on top of the frigid weather, so there was just too much craziness, and I gave in pretty much every single time they asked for another program.

Today’s post is all about great sensory stuff you can do with shaving cream. Yes, I did all of this in one day with both of them. No, I would normally never do this. However, today I was determined to cut down on the TV watching, so I knew I needed something pretty spectacular to divert their attention from the evil box.

Shaving Cream: Sensory activity for preschoolers (2)

We already had the can of shaving cream from our snow day activities. When I bought the shaving cream, I knew I’d want to let them use it for some more playtime, but I hadn’t really thought that out very far. Today, I brainstormed a bunch of different ideas, and you’ll see some of those below.

Here are a few things to keep in mind if you decide to try this:

  • -Less is more. No, seriously. It takes one TINY squirt of shaving cream to give you a nice surface for writing or drawing. Any more, and you just get mountains. You can see in the first picture up there that Bethany had mountains, and she wasn’t really a fan of how it felt on her hands.
  • -Think about the surface you’ll be using. I have oilcloth on my table all the time, but you could also use a vinyl tablecloth. Alternatively, you could put the shaving cream on a metal cookie sheet, which would be easy enough to wash off in the bathtub.
  • -Have warm, wet rags nearby so that your kiddos can wipe their hands as often as necessary.
  • -This isnot an activity I recommend for times when you need to keep your kids occupied while you do something else. It’s too easy for them to wipe shaving cream in their eyes, or to smear huge globs of it somewhere it shouldn’t be. Ask me how I know

Shaving Cream: Sensory activity for preschoolers (3)

Once the girls had spent some time just playing in the shaving cream and smearing it everywhere, I tried doing a little bit of writing practice with Bethany. She is occasionally interested in writing letters, so that’s what we did. Here, you see my ‘D’ on the right, and hers on the left.

Shaving cream is excellent for this, because you can immediately erase any mistakes and make corrections. It’s also easy to do some hand-over-hand work, particularly on the harder letters, like ‘N.’

Shaving Cream: Sensory activity for preschoolers (4)

This was a surprise – I looked over, and Clara had made a ‘D,’ too. Then, she lost interest and went back to flinging shaving cream off her hands.

{By the way, I used to do this in the classroom. First, I’d give out one small squirt of shaving cream per kid, and then allow a bit of a free play time. We’d then practice sight words or spelling words. You could also use it for basic letters and numerals, geometric shapes, parallel/perpendicular/intersecting lines, types of angles – you get the idea.When you’re done, wiping the shaving cream from the desks also cleans them. You will want to make sure you can send your students immediately to the bathroom when you’re finished so that they can wash hands. As a bonus, your classroom will smell like a barbershop.}

Shaving Cream: Sensory activity for preschoolers (5)

Now, let me reiterate that ordinarily I would have let that be the end of our shaving cream fun for the day. Since today was spectacularly awesome (haha), we kept going. Next, I gave the girls some of their plastic animals to use. I started with the ones most likely to live in the snow, but eventually just gave them each a bunch to help make a snowy scene.

Shaving Cream: Sensory activity for preschoolers (6)If you were aiming for accuracy, you could plan in advance, find animals specific to the habitat you’re studying, and talk about the sorts of landforms you might see in the area. We just had fun putting animals in the ‘snow.’

Shaving Cream: Sensory activity for preschoolers (7)

Finally, we did some color mixing. Before you accuse me of insanity, you should know that I did think I’d taken leave of my senses before we were done with this. This is the sort of thing better done outside, or after you’ve covered your children with large tarps. We did neither of those things, and survived, but there was a big mess involved.

Basically, I squirted shaving cream into three cups of a half-dozen-sized muffin tin. (I bought this at the dollar store, and use it for activities exclusively. That way, my muffins don’t taste like shaving cream.) Then, we squirted food coloring into each, making them the primary colors. Here’s a helpful hint: I have no idea how you actually do this and get red. I can only imagine it would take entire bottles of food coloring. The best we could get was sort of a dark orange.

Shaving Cream: Sensory activity for preschoolers (8)

From there, we scooped the colors together in the empty cups to make the secondary colors. This was a LOT of fun, even though our colors were a little bit off. While we did make a lovely mint green, our purple looked like brown, and our orange was not terribly distinguishable from our red.

I think if I were to do this again, I’d stop while I was ahead, let them admire the pretty colors in the muffin tin, and then rinse it out. Instead, I foolishly told the girls they could ‘paint’ with the dyed shaving cream. From there, I ended up with red-dyed skin, ruined clothes, and something close to a migraine. There are no pictures, thank goodness.

In all seriousness, we had a blast. I had all of these materials on hand, and all of it was inexpensive enough that I was more than willing to just let them do what they wanted. If you’re wary of a messy sensory activity for preschoolers, a little bit of shaving cream on a safe surface is a good place to start, and then the fun that you have – never mind the kids – will probably convince you to give something else a try.

Shaving Cream: Sensory activity for preschoolers (2024)

FAQs

Is shaving cream a sensory activity? ›

Mostly because it's fun! But there are great developmental benefits to sensory play, like this shaving cream activity. Messy play can reduce tactile sensitivity in children, which translates to better experiences with clothing and food later on.

What are the shaving cream activities for special needs? ›

Writing and Drawing with Shaving Cream

Squeeze a large amount of shaving cream on the surface and encourage your children to draw shapes, letters, or just smoosh the cream between their fingers. This activity can be done with shaving cream in a large plastic bag if you would like to avoid the mess!

How do you use shaving cream in the classroom? ›

Clear the work tables or student desks, and have children don a paint shirt. Shake up a can of shaving cream (they sell a variety at The Dollar Store) and squirt a few big dollops in front of each child's place. The whole key to not making a mess is to give them just enough to make a writing board.

What to use instead of shaving cream for sensory play? ›

This sensory foam is so easy to make and is a great taste safe alternative to shaving cream so perfect for little ones.

Can you use shaving cream in preschool? ›

So if shaving cream is a developmentally appropriate activity choice for your group (regardless of how old they are) you can use it but if your evaluator shows up, and there are children under the age of 3 using it, you need to be within arms reach of the children or it could lower your score.

How do you write activities with shaving cream? ›

Write your child's name in the shaving cream. 4. Have your child copy the letters under your writing or have them trace your writing before writing letters of their own. They can erase their work, by re-spreading the shaving cream and practice as many times as they like.

What was the purpose of shaving cream? ›

Lubrication.

Shaving cream creates a thin layer of protection between the blade and the skin, ensuring less friction and minimizing the risk of redness, razor burn, and irritation – and fewer nicks and cuts.

Why is shaving cream good for the classroom? ›

Apart from the visual stimulation it offers, it also ignites the olfactory senses with various (and hopefully pleasant) smells, and once the children manipulate the shaving cream, the kinaesthetic invigoration can be boundless.

How to do shaving cream on desks? ›

Spray a blob of shaving cream on students' dirty desks and let them draw, rub, and scribble to their heart's content! After about half an hour, the shaving cream evaporates, leaving the desks spotless. Wipe down with a wet rag and let the surface dry.

Can you use shaving foam for messy play? ›

This is a wonderful messy play and art activity for toddlers, babies and children. It is quick and easy to set up and the shaving foam and paint looks really effective and enticing against the black of the tuff tray.

How do you make shaving foam sensory? ›

Just mix equal parts corn starch and shaving foam, add your desired food colouring, then gently knead into a dough consistency for easy sensory fun.

What is the best thing to use instead of shaving cream? ›

One of the most popular substitutes for shaving cream is conditioner — and for a good reason. Conditioner typically has a thick formula and is formulated with soothing, hydrating ingredients, making it an easy swap for shaving cream if you're in need.

Can you add shaving cream to playdough? ›

Let the kids mix the corn starch as you add the shaving cream and be prepared with molds if desired. My kids used the shaving cream lid as a mold an just made mountains, a race track, "snowballs" and just had an awesome time with all the good sensory play that comes out of making this concoction.

What classification of matter is shaving cream? ›

Shaving cream is a special type of mixture called a colloid, consisting of tiny air bubbles dispersed in liquid. This particular type of colloid can further classified as a foam.

What are examples of sensory skills? ›

Sensory skills are those such as vision, touch, smell, taste, hearing, vestibular (for balance movement and head positions) and proprioception (position and movement of the muscles and joints). Sensory skills are responsible for receiving information from the environment and from the body.

What is an example of a sensory technique? ›

Learning sensory language techniques helps children to accurately describe the sensation they are trying to express. For example, they might be able to explain the umami taste or the taste of a certain food they may not have been able to express previously when asked what it tasted like.

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