Frozen Themed Sensory Play

(4 Years)

"Really?  I'm guessing you don't have much experience with heat."
"Nope."

You can't help but sing along with the songs from Frozen- maybe because the kids sing it in the pool, while playing dress-up, in the bath, in the car.... you get the picture.

Well Frozen inspired this frozen sensory play.  We first placed a can of shaving foam in the fridge the night before to get it nice and chilly.  We then made three different colors of ice blocks- so the kids could pretend to be ice cutters (and builders) - it was supposed to be just shades of blues and purples, but I knew that Little Miss would really want pinks, so I made a batch of pinks also.  We used gel food dye, but liquid food dye and liquid watercolor works the same when making colored ice.

This type of creative play is just perfect for a HOT summer day.  They loved building and knocking down their ice creations.

Look at the concentration on their faces, so serious!  I love it!

The colored ice cubes lasted a long time in the 90 degree heat.  In fact, it lasted so long that we brought out that can of cold shaving foam that I mentioned earlier.

"Foam!"  Anna, Elsa and Olaf also joined in on the fun.  The Frozen friends were buried in snow, an ice palace was constructed (and knocked down- ooops), they went sledding and ice skating, Olaf had his dip in the water - just like he always wanted.

They had so much fun playing with colored ice in the foam, it turned the foam beautiful shades of purple, blue and pink.

Clean up is so simple- hose it all down.  The shaving foam even made their trays and toys squeaky clean.  They played with the colored ice and foam for a little over an hour - the ice stayed all that time.  If you need a fun, easy and inexpensive activity, this sensory play is perfect for that HOT summer day.  

The kids asked to play with this again, next time we are going to add in some water beads for more sensory fun.  I love how easy this is!  Happy Monday

Swirled Art Easter Egg Decorations

(4 Years)

We love playing with shaving cream.  Especially with colored shaving cream!  It's so much fun to squish your hands through the foam.  Last year we made swirled art Easter eggs, the kids and Grandpa were amazed at the beautiful results (see here).  This year, we decided to make swirled art Easter egg decorations for our palm tree.

We used the same process that we used last year (see here) and when the paintings were dry, I cut them into smaller eggs shapes, attached a loop of yarn with tape and then Wild One went around hanging them up!

The process is so simple:

Fill a tray with about an inch of shaving cream.  Add drops of different colored food dye.

Swirl with a chopstick or the end of a paint brush.

Place the construction paper on top of the swirled shaving cream.  Lightly pat it down (making sure that the paper is covered in shaving cream).

Carefully peel the paper from the shaving cream.  Allow to set for a minute or two.  Then scrape off using a window squeegee or a bench scraper or a ruler or a craft stick, wiping off the shaving cream from the scraper each time you swipe.  Allow your creation to dry and then you are ready to decorate!  Save those scraps of pretty paper, I'll show you why tomorrow.

Here are a few more fun ways to play with shaving cream:

Colored Foam with Ice

Hidden Water Beads in Shaving Cream

Fluffy Cloud Dough

Rainbow Bath Paint

Car (Toy) Wash 

We always stock up on shaving cream when it's on sale, but in a pinch we'll pick up some cans at The Dollar Tree - I love that place!  Don't you?

Swirled Easter Egg Art with Tips

(37 Months)

I've been wanting to do this project for over a year now (there are step-by-step directions at PlayCreateExplore).  We tried working on this last year (see here), but it morphed into a shaving cream sensory bin (instead of an art project).  They liked playing with shaving cream so much, that we decided it would be fun to make shaving cream paint to use in the bathtub (see here).  So now with Easter a few days away, and no new Easter art projects on our walls and windows- it's time to get busy.

This project couldn't be simpler.  Instead of white card stock, we used pink, light blue and light green construction paper.  Other than that, we followed the directions and were incredibly impressed with the results.

Step 1- spray shaving foam into a jelly roll pan (a rolled cookie sheet).
Step 2- spread it out evenly (I used my hand)
Step 3- add your favorite drops of liquid food coloring
Step 4- swirl with a chopstick or the back of the paint brush (see Little Miss demonstrating below)

Step 5- place card stock or construction paper on top of the swirled shaving cream

Step 6- gently peel the paper off of the shaving cream and set aside

Step 7- add five or six more drops of food dye and swirl, repeat steps 5 and 6

Step 8- we waited five minutes before scraping the shaving cream off of the paper, we used a wooden craft stick

Step 9- set aside to dry (see tips below)

Step 10- Enjoy your gorgeous artwork. 

We did learn a few tricks during our exploration into swirl art:
1. Six drops of food coloring wasn't nearly enough- we used nine and that was perfect.
2. You can reuse the same tray of swirled art at least twice, just add three or four more drops of food coloring.
3.  Make sure you rinse off the craft stick and then dry it before each swipe of removing the shaving cream from the paper.

Here are our (mostly) finished products.  I just don't have the heart to cut into these to turn them into Easter eggs.

We'll definitely be doing this again and again.  Thank you again to Play Create Explore for introducing us to a wonderfully creative art project.