Shaving Cream Activities and Projects for Kids

You've probably got a can of it in your bathroom, but did you know that shaving cream is a great arts and crafts medium for preschoolers and toddlers? Children love the cool, smooth feel of shaving cream, the malleability of it and the way it disappears through the fingers.

Children can write and draw in shaving cream. Shaving cream is easy to clean up and safe for children (just provide common-sense supervision and use the non-mentholated, sensitive-skin type of shaving cream to avoid skin and eye irritation). You can add paint to give shaving cream some color. You can even add glue to if for a 3-D, puffy paint effect. Read on for ideas to turn that can of shaving cream into fun and learning.

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Spray some shaving cream on a table and let your child play in it. This is the simplest way to enjoy shaving cream, yet it offers many ways to sneak in some learning. After the initial squeezing of the shaving cream through fingers and piling it high on the table, your toddler will probably spread it fairly evenly as far as he can reach. This is when the drawing begins. Drawing or writing in shaving cream on a flat surface has several things going for it. First is the novelty factor. How often does a child get to spray foam all over the table and play in it? Second, there is no writing utensil for little fingers to worry about--no worries about gripping too tight or too loose, to high or too low, which fingers to put where on the pencil. The child just uses his finger directly to write in the shaving cream. Third, what is written or drawn in shaving cream is easy to erase. Mistakes are gone and forgotten in an instant, and you don't go through sheets and sheets of paper.

Most children will happily draw lines and squiggles, maybe even a happy face or a flower. Sometimes letting your little one play is all you'll want to do, but at other times you might want to get involved and give the play some direction. Here are some fun and educational ideas. Vote for the ones you like or want to try, and feel free to add ideas of your own.

Note: For easier cleanup, or for children with sensory issues who don't like messy hands, try these activities with the shaving cream in a ziploc bag. (Note on the note: I found a page with many other ziploc bag activities.)

Here's a quick video of someone marbling paper with shaving cream and paint.

The basic recipe for shaving cream puffy paint is one part shaving cream, one part white glue, and paint or food coloring. If you are making more than one color, mix, the shaving cream and glue first. Then divide and add the colors. Paint it on thick!