Foam Dough Sensory Play

 

We love sensory doughs and are always up for trying something new.

I first heard of foam dough during the 12 Months of Sensory Doughs event last year. It definitely sounds great on paper: It’s made from shaving cream and cornstarch, and you can hardly go wrong with either one!

When we tried it, it certainly didn’t disappoint – it was even more fun than I thought it would be! I consider this a must-try sensory activity because it’s just so simple to set up, and so engaging!

 

(E was 3 years and 7 months old.)

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Materials for Foam Dough Sensory Play:

• Shaving cream.
• Cornstarch.
• Liquid watercolors or food coloring.
• Baking soda (optional).
• Vinegar (optional).
• Squeeze bottle (optional).
• Sensory bin.
• Assorted items to play with (optional). {We had a few wooden and plastic spoons and ice cream sundae cups that E asked for after she’d played with the foam dough for a while.}

 

 

 

To make foam dough, you mix equal parts of shaving cream and cornstarch.

I experimented a bit with replacing the cornstarch with baking soda because … well, you know how much we love baking soda and vinegar!

When I replaced all the cornstarch, it changed the game completely, making a very crumbly dough. So only the red dough was straight up baking soda and shaving cream, the other colors had varying proportions of shaving cream, cornstarch and baking soda. And that’s one of the awesome things about foam dough – you can’t really do it wrong. You’ll end up with different consistencies but they’re all super fun!

 

 

E was somewhat suspicious of the texture at first and only touched the different colors with a fingertip, until she was convinced that this was really going to be awesome – and at that point, she really dove in!

 

 

 

We both loved how the colors didn’t actually mix but combined in unique ways.

 

 

E formed funky colored foam dough balls with her hands for quite a while before she decided that it looked just like ice cream and asked for our ice cream sundae cups. While we were getting them, she came across a few wooden and plastic spoons and decided she could use them, too.

She made many seriously delicious-looking ice cream sundaes, dumped them out and started over.

 

 

And now, the red baking soda dough almost looked like sprinkles 🙂

 

 

E formed lots of little bits and pieces for her ice cream sundaes, and the foam dough held together surprisingly well.

 

 

When E was done with the ice cream sundaes, she dug in with her hands again to combine the colors further.

 

 

When she started losing interest, I offered her a squeeze bottle of vinegar. She was ecstatic 🙂

The foam dough turned out to be super fizzy!

 

 

When the vinegar was all used up, the sensory experience had changed completely, and E spent some more time exploring the saturated foam dough with her spoon

 

 

and with her hands.

 

 

Not only was the foam dough super fun to play with, it cleaned up really easily, too – shaving cream is just so awesome that way!

 

 

 

Have you played with foam dough before? Tell me all about it in the comments – and feel free to leave a link if you’ve written about it!

 

 

 

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