Sensory Activities for kids : Rainbow Writing with shaving cream

My 3 year old really, I mean *really* wants to write simply because she sees big sister ( 5 years old) write with ease and interest. I find her trying to write her name, write “captions” for her pictures etc. As we all have personally seen the best to encourage the little ones to explore their area of interest further is through play. We are engaging in more sensory activities for kids through good old shaving cream trick with a rainbow twist. Who doesn’t enjoy rainbow activities? I know even I do!

{Access all our writing activities here} {Don’t forget to visit all our shaving cream art projects.}

For this fun sensory activity you will need

• Baking Tray
• Aluminium Foil
• Acrylic Paint
• Shaving Cream
• Cotton Buds (optional)

I tightly covered a baking tray with foil and painted rainbow colors using acrylic paint. For this type of sensory activity I usually involve the children in the preparation since I believe that preparation is half the fun. However this time around, I wanted to surprise my 3 year old with this sensory activity I prepared the sheet. This may be a good chance to have your older child prepare the sheet. So many wonderful opportunities to practice those fine motor skills, especially with the wrapping of the foil.

Once the paint dried  I layered the sheet with shaving cream and had my little one come for a tiny surprise! She came squealing ” shaving cream mommy?” Knowing very well she would say yes, I asked ” Do you want to write with your fingers”

That’s what she did for a long time. Once she started making those lines, the colors on the foil would show and that got her even more excited. She would make more beautiful marks, swirls and even an occasional “A” to reveal more of the colors. Of course true to her age, she wanted to reveal the entire color palette by doing a big swipe with her fist. That’s fine all you have to do is smooth out the shaving cream to start all over again! Sensory activities like this are a perfect fit for her age group.

Since she was totally in love with the writing medium she explore a lot more than she would normally do. We would fill fill up the tray with these beautiful rainbow writing.

Obviously we ended up playing with the shaving cream by totally swooshing and swishing it.

This could be a wonderful way to have the older ones practice writing sight words.

Notes: Try to use smooth or  blunt “writing” materials since the paint *may* ( depending on the brand) peel off. If the kids are just using their fingers you should be fine.

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 Fore more sensory activities for kids visit our category page

More Messy play ideas are also on the blog

More inspiration can be found at sensory activities Pinterest board

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