The Best Shaving Cream Sensory Play for Beginners

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Shaving cream is one of our favorite sensory play ideas for kids of all ages. This fun activity is a great form of sensory play and an easy way to entertain your child. And all you need is a can of shaving cream!

As a preschool teacher, shaving cream is something I keep on hand to play with multiple times a year.  This type of sensory play is great for little fingers and a favorite for child development. 

toddler playing in shaving cream

Benefits of Sensory Play Activities

Sensory activities help a child’s cognitive development as well as encourage their creativity as they discover the wonderful world around them. The different textures, colors, smells, and looks all provide levels of sensory exploration. This type of play is also great for fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination in young children as they use their hands and fingers to squish, squeeze, and manipulate the shaving cream.  

Tactile sensory play helps build many important skills in little kids, but usually does lead to a mess. Messy sensory play seems intimidating for the person doing the clean up, but shaving cream is a simple way to make that easier. 

pile of shaving cream

How to Minimize the Mess 

Here’s some of our favorite tips to minimize the mess during any shaving cream activity. It’s a good idea to take these precautions before to make the clean up easier on yourself, but they’re not a must. 

  • Put down a plastic table cloth (we have some from the dollar store) or tin foil to do this activity on. 
  • Start the shaving foam play in the bathtub!
  • If it’s a nice day, bring the shaving cream outside.
  • Like sensory bins, follow our tips to teach kids how to play with shaving cream. 

Another piece of advice: expect the messy fun. With sensory play like this, there’s bound to be a mess, so it’s easier if you expect it. 

Shaving Cream Fun 

Let the fun begin! The beauty of shaving cream is that the texture and feel is great for the sensory experience, but it’s also easy clean-up. Shaving cream is essentially soap that will easily wash right off of clothes, surfaces, and children.

child playing in shaving cream

Begin the Sensory Play

Little hands love the feel of shaving cream, so begin with just shaving cream. This is a great way to get small children used to messy play which is awesome for their development. Let them explore the feel of the shaving cream between their fingers to their hearts content. 

The first few times your child does shaving cream play, remember they do need adult supervision to help contain the mess. But they will learn! 

At this early age we’re willing to bet that all your child will do is squish the shaving cream in their hands and make big circles with it on the table. And that’s awesome! This is a fun way they’re learning and building development skills. 

bug toys in shaving cream

Open-Ended Play Activity

One of the best benefits of this great sensory activity is that it’s open-ended. That means there’s no end goal or certain way that children are supposed to be playing with it. This allows more creativity and room to explore for children. 

You don’t have to make sure they’re doing any specific thing with this activity, just let them lead. Read all about encouraging open-ended play here

When Can I Start Shaving Cream Play? 

Sensory play is great for kids of all ages, including babies! But babies will inevitably put things in their mouths, so we saved the shaving cream until my granddaughter was almost a year old. And we started with just a little bit for a fun baby fine motor activity.

She did put the shaving cream in her mouth the first time, and quickly realized soap like this tastes bad. So after one or two more tastes and lots of water, she learned not to put it in her mouth. 

Different Ways to Play with Shaving Cream 

Another great aspect of shaving cream is how many different ways there are to play! And they’re all so much fun. Have a great time with any of these sensory activities:

Shaving Cream with Toys

The easiest first step after plain shaving cream is to add in little toys that your child likes to play with already. For my grandson, this was plastic animals. The best way to keep them engaged in any type of sensory activity is to use things they already love to play with. 

plastic toys in shaving cream

You can add other toys that can get wet like dinosaurs, plastic baby dolls, bugs, cars, and even more! 

Shaving Cream Wash 

Since shaving cream is just soap, set up a fun shaving cream wash station. In addition to the shaving cream, give your child a bucket of water to rinse their toys in after the shaving cream. My grandson especially likes to set up a car wash this way. 

Cold Sensory Play

One of our favorite ways to play with shaving cream on summer days is by adding a little cold with ice cubes. The temperature adds another element of sensory exploration and creates more fun! You can give them whole ice cube trays to add to their shaving cream. 

Shaving Cream Paint

One of my grandkids favorite shaving cream activities is homemade puffy paint using shaving cream. The colored shaving cream is a fun twist on painting that we love to do outside to paint the sidewalk. This can be with paint brushes or finger paint! 

toddler using shaving cream paint outside

Just add a few drops of food coloring to your shaving cream and mix. The colorful shaving cream can then be used as paint, but now is no longer as washable on everything. 

Sensory Play on the Go

If you can’t go outside or don’t want to clean up any mess, consider making shaving cream sensory bags. Add shaving cream and small objects to a large Ziploc bag. Then, superglue the top shut to avoid it spilling out. 

Simple Shaving Cream Sensory Bin 

Young kids love sensory bins, and you can easily make one by adding shaving cream to a plastic bin. Then just add in tools for pouring, mixing, and scooping that you have in your kitchen. 

Add Shaving Cream to Your Water Play

Combine two fun activities by adding shaving cream to your water play. This can be in the bathtub, a sensory bin, or in a water table. This is one of my grandson’s favorite for outdoor summer fun! 

Practice Writing

For older kids that know their letters and possibly words, shaving cream is a great tool to practice writing in with their fingers. This is one of the best ways I like to teach writing your name in preschool and kindergarten.  

child writing letter in shaving cream

Enjoy the Shaving Cream Sensory Play 

Whether your try all these activities or just plain old shaving cream with your child, have fun with it! This is an activity that requires little guidance once they get the basics, so let them lead the way. And know that they are learning through the mess! 

More Sensory Fun

If your child loves sensory play, try making your own slime! Follow our simple recipe here to make with your child.

homemade purple slime

Non-Toxic Foam Sensory Play

If your child still puts the shaving cream in their mouth or has sensitive skin, you can try this completely non-toxic foam sensory bin. It’s even edible!

child playing in non-toxic foam sensory bin

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