Scented Shaving Cream Art for Spring

Today I’m joining up with All Things Kids’ Spring Sensory Play Date.  There are six fun ideas to try out from Fun-A-Day, Sugar Aunts, Crayon Box Chronicles, All Done Monkey, Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails, and House of Burke.  Below is a link up for even more sensory play for spring.  My class created some beautiful shaving cream art, and I thought this would the perfect time to share it!

scented shaving cream art in preschool

My students and I love trying out different process art techniques, and we also love sensory play.  So it seemed like a wonderful idea to combine the two with scented shaving cream art!  It turned out to be tons of messy fun resulting in some beautiful pieces of art.

What We Used
Acrylic paint in spring colors
Scented shaving cream & scented shaving gel – we used different floral scents
White construction paper
Small pieces of cardboard
Plastic butter knife

How We Played
Before we even started creating our masterpieces, I let the kiddos explore the shaving cream.  It’s just too inviting for little hands to do otherwise!  The children spread it all over the table, running their hands through it over and over.  A few of them tried to decide which “flower smells” they liked the best.

I loved hearing what they had to say during this exploration:

• “That does NOT smell like a good flower!”
• “Ooooh, it feels all smooshy and gooey!”
• “Miss Mary Catherine, it’s just like icing!  Lots and lots of icing!”
• “I like this flowery smelly one.  It smells better.  And it looks pinker!”

After about half an hour of thorough shaving cream play, we cleaned up.  This involved quite a few paper towels, wipes, and trips to the bathroom to wash up.  🙂  Once that was done, the kids and I started to create our shaving cream art.

Directions
1. Spread a layer of shaving cream on a finger paint tray or baking sheet.

2. Use acrylic paints to create designs on top of the shaving cream.  Small dots and thin lines worked best for us.

3. Using a knife, carefully create a marbling effect.  I told the students it was like playing connect-the-dots, running the knife in lines and squiggles between the paint designs.

4. Once the design is finished, place a piece of paper on top of the painted shaving cream.  Press down gently to ensure the design transfers to the paper.  Carefully remove the paper.

5. Using a piece of cardboard as a squeegee, scrape the shaving cream off the paper.  The paint design will remain behind.

6.  Ooooh and aaaaah at the beautiful art that’s been created!

Our scented shaving cream art was a huge hit with my students!  Many children created more than one piece of art.  We also had fun creating a print, then making a second print from it.  We had such a good time that our scented shaving cream art expanded past just one day!

Have you tried any shaving cream art before?

Don’t forget to check out the rest of All Things Kids’ Spring Sensory Play Date activities!  If you’re a blogger, be sure to link up your spring sensory activities below.  I can’t wait to see what else is shared.