I honestly can't tell you how good this activity was for my soul! Throughout the last 4 years we have always loved sensory play. If you have been following our journey and activity ideas you will already know this. With my daughter starting school, the day doesn't allow for such free messy play as we used to do. I miss it. Her school was closed and I asked what she wanted to do. Her response was like music to my ears "I would like to do some painting or messy play with you Mommy".
I set the Tuff Tray up and put out our Tuff Tray mirror that I had from Early Years Resources. It's the first activity we have enjoyed using it. Inside the house I have been lying it flat to the floor and the twins spend ages crawling over the top of it and babbling away to their reflection. It's adorable!
Once nap time approached for the boys we were outside.... I literally popped the paints on the top and added some shaving cream too. I told Neve if there was anything else she wanted to add to go and collect it and she could do as she pleased.
Off she went and gathered some Nature items from around the garden, using scissors - great for fine motor skills and building the control and strength up in her hands. She collected some paint brushes too and went straight in for the shaving cream.
She gave the cream a big shake to 'mix it all up' and she began squirting it all over the mirror. Big mounds of cream began to form. 'WOW, this is just like snow' she said. She put the can down and reached down into the mountains of cream with her hands. She submerged them and appeared to love the sensation of it all over her hands.
She smeared the cream all over the mirror and picked up the nature she had collected and dotted it around the tray. In the bottom left of the photo above are stems from Aquilegia. As she moved with them in her hands she heard a noise - 'what is that?' she quizzed. She shook harder and said the noise was just like a maraca. 'What could the noise be do you think' I asked?
"I'm going to find out" she said. Bursting one open and finding hundreds of super tiny balls. Talk about hands on learning. Great to see her exploring and learning naturally, I look forward to them growing all over my grass next year HA!
She started adding thick blobs of paint. We have been using paint from Early Years Resources lately and I just love the colours! Again she reached down and watched colours submerge before her eyes.
She reached high, low and out to the sides! Great gross motor movements right there! She was thrilled with the marks she created and giggled at seeing herself through the marks on the mirror below!
She explored colour mixing hands on and her excitement when she made new colours was pretty fun to watch!
When I share our adventures with shaving cream I do get some messages at times from people saying you shouldn't use shaving cream. My response is always the same, as it is for ANY activity you set up for children.
All activities should be fully supervised by a responsible adult. It's our job to risk assess - what allergies do the children have? Do children still put things into their mouths? Have you brought items that are more suitable for younger children and so on.
Each child will be different and as with all activities - not all are suitable for all children. We have always worked with shaving cream on a one to one basis and I have always been very open about why we shouldn't put it by our mouths. I have never had any problems here and if any were to arise I would be there on hand to intervene and stop the activity if I needed to.
I always buy sensitive cream and do a patch test on children first to make sure no irritation occurs. Speak to parents and see if they've ever had any issues with any items at home and use your own personal judgements.
Over the years we have had lots of fun with shaving cream - creating Marbled Hearts, Autumn Shaving Cream Patterns, Shaving Cream Tuff Tray, Shaving Cream Painting plus many more that I haven't documented.
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