It’s beautiful and easy; surely you would think I would gather the simple materials together and do it the next day, or within the week at most.

 
Ah…. I surprise even myself. The lazy part of me procrastinates any attempt for months; and as I write this post, I discover it’s been more than a year since I have come across this particular art project.

Marbled Paper with Shaving Cream

 
I first came across the idea of creating marbled paper with shaving cream on Little Wonders’ Days’ Shaving Cream Painted Fall Leaves. I adore Autumn leaves and their painted Fall leaves were gorgeous. I fell in love with their blog and the idea of creating marbled paper with shaving cream.

 
A year passes, and one day I see shaving cream painting while we’re watching ABC4Kids’ PlaySchool. “Goodness gracious me,” I thought. “That looks like fun.” The idea of creating marbled paper with shaving cream resurfaces.

 
One afternoon, my preschool twins N and M were particularly restless. Normally they would pounce upon a chance to play with some shaving cream, but they had just played that yesterday so there was no pouncing so to speak.

 
It was finally time to create marbled paper with shaving cream.

 
Time: 30 minutes

 
Materials: shaving cream; food colouring (or washable paint); toothpick or skewer; paper or card stock; rectangular take away container lids (or something with a strong long edge).

 
Method:

 
Spray a generous amount of shaving cream into a long dish. Spread the shaving cream so that it covers the dish.

 
Place little droplets of food colouring (or washable paint) on top of the shaving cream. (We used food colouring and loved the vivid colours, but a note of warning – our hands were stained for about a day).

 
Using a skewer or toothpick, swirl the colours around gently.

 
Place the paper or cardstock on top of the shaving cream and press gently.

 
Lift the paper off the shaving cream and using the rectangular takeaway lid as a squeegee, gently scrape away the shaving cream.

 
Leave your beautiful marbled paper to dry.

 
It’s beautiful, easy… and the kids loved it.

 
Don’t procrastinate like me; make your marbled paper with shaving cream today, (okay… within the week).

N & M: 4 years, 4 months
October 2012

The post Marbled Paper with Shaving Cream by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.

From last week’s Weekly Kids Co-op, come and marvel at how these quality educators work their magic. They not only create enjoyable learning experiences; they explicitly teach new concepts. It’s simply beautiful.

Cloud in a Jar by Mama’s Little Muse

Throughout my schooling, Science was so poorly taught. It’s such a shame because Science is so interesting. I am baffled by how such an interesting subject could be taught so poorly. Carolyn from Mama’s Little Muse shows us how it could (and should) be done.

Oil & Water Colour Explosions by B.Inspired.Mama!

Another beautiful science lesson. Doesn’t the face say it all?

Fun Ways to Teach Your Child How to Spell Her Name by Playdough to Plato

I have only just discovered Playdough to Plato and it is an absolute gem. Malia from Playdough to Plato is an exceptionally talented educator and her genuine heart to give parents the skills to help their children learn to read is evident in the quality of resources available on her blog. Bookmark it, subscribe to it, like it, love it.

The Weekly Kids’ Co-op is co-hosted by over 70 (and growing) fun kids’ blogs. Add your child-focused link here and we’ll share your idea across all of our child-focused blogs. Follow us on our popular Weekly Kids Co-op Pinterest board (which has over 242,000 followers) and The Kids Co-op on Facebook.

The post Weekly Kids’ Co-op: Inspiring Educators by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.

“Man needs colour to live; it’s just as necessary an element as fire and water.” ~ Fernand Leger.

After the success of our shaving cream car wash, we took out our baking trays, shaving cream, cars and a large bowl of water for another shaving cream car wash. This time, we extended the play to include some colour – and my oh my what a feast for the eyes (and camera) it was.

Our tools were simple – little droppers, a selection of food colouring and skewer sticks.

N & M dripped and swirled the colours in all sorts of marvellous random patterns.

Then the cars went into the colourful carwash.

Add more shaving cream.

Add more colours.

Add more cars.

It’s simple. It’s fun.

How do you play with shaving cream?

Lesson learnt: stop, have a seat and be part of your kids play – the messy home can wait.

N&M: 3 years, 5 months

 For more messy play ideas see Lessons Learnt Journal Messy Play.

This post was shared in the following linky parties:

Red Ted Art’s Kids Get Crafty

It’s Playtime

T.G.I.F. Living Life Intentionally

The Nurture Store Play Academy

Sunday Showcase

No Time for Flash Cards Link & Learn

After School

The post coloured shaving cream car wash by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.

 
For messy play, this activity is surprisingly almost as clean as it can get. The clean up itself is already half way there as the shaving cream is very easy to wipe up and with the set up of this play, the kids are actually cleaning throughout the whole play. There’s also the wonderful scent of shaving cream. Lovely!

Shaving Cream Car Wash

 
What you need:
shaving cream
large trays
toy cars
large bowl of water
towel
table cover

 
Here’s how we played:

 
Squirt shaving cream onto trays.
I did this for them at first, but then realised, it would be more fun for them to do it themselves. I was right. N enjoyed squirting shaving cream from the can immensely. The whole can of shaving cream was finished within the one session of play (which lasted about 30 – 45 mins).

 
Drive car toys through the shaving cream car wash.
M formed race tracks and was happy driving cars around. He made some interesting tracks.

 
Rinse off cars in a large bowl of water.
This made this messy play manageable for N & M. N because he kept piling the shaving cream onto his tray, so much so that he couldn’t even see his cars. I found him rinsing off his cars just so he could squirt more shaving cream onto his tray. M doesn’t generally like messy play, so the bowl of water and towel close by to rinse and dry off any uncomfortable mess was a helpful scaffold for him to enjoy this activity.

 
Free play.
Lots of potential for imaginative free play with this activity.

 
We had a tub of various vehicles including boats. Boats belong on the water, naturally.

 
Finger painting.

 
Not sure what the technical term is, but I refer to this as “mooshing with the hands”.

 
Scooping and pouring.

Lesson learnt: the most pleasant surprises happen when we are willing to step out of our comfort zones.

When have you been pleasantly surprised in the area of play?

Check out our coloured shaving cream car wash too.

N & M: 3 y.o.

October 2011

This post was shared in the following linky parties:

No Time for Flash Cards Link & Learn

It’s Playtime

The Nurture Store Play Academy

The post shaving cream car wash by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.