Shaving Cream & Water

Here’s another activity that many would look at as “just playing” . . . shaving cream in the sensory table, with water added later.  During this activity, children practice language and conversation skills, practice turn-taking, explore many of their senses, make observations about  volume and matter, practice basic life skills, retell stories/books, and create new stories.  Writing and drawing are easily incorporated into this activity, as well.  On top of all that learning, the kiddos have FUN!  Not a bad way to spend the morning!

Today we changed it up a little bit by adding shaving cream to the water table.  Since it’s just Engineer and I living here, I only had some of my shaving cream.  Eventually, I plan to grab some of the cheaper shaving cream just for our craft closet.  Until that happens, my shaving cream was a good pinch-hitter.  Plus, it smelled pretty!

I placed a cup with paint brushes in the water table.  Then I squirted the shaving cream in and let the boys have at it.

They used the paint brushes to make designs and “paint” the water table.  Some cars and trucks were driven through the shaving cream, making funky tracks.  Of course, they ended up with shaving cream on themselves too!  Little Hurricane, in particular.

After about 15 minutes of playing with just the shaving cream, I added some water.  Snoopy commented that it looked a bit like milk, while Engineer equated it to white paint.

Once the water was added, a whole new level of play crept in.  Little Hurricane was still all about dumping water and splashing, but Snoopy and Engineer got into some pretend play.  They had trains and cars in the water that were swept away when a dam overflowed. There were also many, many car and train washes in the water table today.  It was hysterical to listen to them describe the events to each other with such enthusiasm!

Eventually, the kiddos moved on to “washing” the bikes on the back deck.  Engineer even went so far as to wash the sliding door for me!  He pointed out he wasn’t tall enough to reach the top, so I was instructed to help out.  Cracked me up!