First Mark Making in Shaving Cream
Shaving cream is a huge favorite at our house! Its sensory properties are awesome (if you haven’t tried it, you should!), it’s easy to clean up – and it’s even a great material for pre-writing practice! I have an older post about E’s first experience with Shaving Cream on the Window and today, I want to tell you about N’s first Mark Making in Shaving Cream activity!
(N was 2 years and 3 months old.)
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Materials for First Mark Making with Shaving Cream
- Shaving cream.
- Cookie sheet or tray (optional).
- Paintbrush, chopstick(s), sticks or similar tools (optional).
The best part of this activity is the simplicity. We used a cookie sheet for the shaving cream, but you could easily put the shaving cream right on the table. It wipes up extremely easily and without leaving stains or a residue.
N put his hand into the shaving cream right away and decided to make his first marks with open palms.
I showed him how to make marks with a finger and wrote an “N” in the shaving cream, but he didn’t really care about all that 😉
It was a lot more fun to just smoosh the shaving cream all over the cookie sheet.
He got so into the sensory experience that he decided to rub the shaving cream all over his arms and hands. He’s not always the biggest fan of having stuff on his hands and I expected him to want to wipe them off, but he decided to leave the shaving cream on and grabbed the paintbrush I had available as an option.
He spent quite a bit of time just making marks and drawing squiggly lines with the end of the paintbrush.
E had asked to help take pictures, so I gave her my phone, and I think she did the most amazing job from the other side of the table!
There are many ways to extend this activity. A fun way is adding paint. That does make the activity a whole lot messier, though, so I probably wouldn’t do this on carpet or next to the couch with N, since he can be a bit impulsive about turning away from the activity and spreading materials to other surfaces. E, however, is very good about containing materials, so we were able to do thisÂ
E, however, is very good about containing materials, so we were able to do an extension of this idea in our Shaving Cream Fall Art activity with shaving cream and paint at the table without it turning into a hot mess.
If you have a tiled area or one that you can cover by a window that’s accessible for kids, it’s a great spot for some mark marking with paint and shaving cream.
Do your kids love learning activities?
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Here are some more mark making and pre-writing activities for kids:
Make Your Mark – Creative Storytelling, Self-Expression, Compassion, and Caring
Christmas Birds Pre-Writing Lines for Toddlers
Farm Animal Pre-Writing Practice
Play Dough and Mark Making by Nurturestore
Moon Dust Sensory Writing Tray by The Imagination Tree
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