One can usually tell how successful an activity is with children if they ask or talk about it for days afterward. Aidan and I managed to make a can of shaving cream last for three days, even when I let him have free reign over it! I've let him use shaving cream in the bathtub before but had been meaning to use it for this activity for some time, I just had not gotten around to it until recently.
A former co-worker of mine and I did this with some teachers in a series of training's we were doing on a curriculum that emphasizes the importance of play. To bring our point across to them we had them experience a variety of activities themselves, this particular one was a big hit! All you need is a tray, pan, or cookie sheet, several different scraping or spreading utensils, a large sponge, and shaving cream!
You'll notice I cut the sponge. We talked about how things can be divided up into pieces, like pizza, pie, and cake! I told him that he had a whole sponge to frost, but that when I cut it he now had two halves, and when I cut it again he had fourquarters. A little math vocabulary for the day.
He proceeded to spread and frost each sponge separately and together.
He decided he needed more shaving cream to get the job done properly.
Then hands seemed to get the job done better.
Who can resist the feel of shaving cream squeeze between their fingers? I joined in on the fun at this point!
We took the shaving cream outside on another day where he tried out a different approach.
He started spreading each piece with the shaving cream, then stacked them....
and he discovered layering!
