Shaving Cream Writing: A Fun Easy Activity for Toddlers, Preschool, and Kindergarten

This is a seriously fun and messy way to practice writing with your child. It uses virtually no materials (just a clean surface, some shaving cream, and your index finger). We get our shaving cream for a dollar at the dollar store and it lasts for several uses. Best of all, kids love it.

All you need to do is spray the working surface (we used a place mat intended for rolling out pastries

and pie crusts, but you could do it on a plastic table cloth or bare wood). Then you will spread the shaving cream out, until it is a thin layer. Now you and your child can write with your fingers (or you can use a dowel as stylus if your child is squeamish about getting their hands mucky in the shaving cream). When you need a new canvas, simply wipe the table with your hand to “erase” what has been written.

When I was a teacher, I saw shaving cream writing used in many different classrooms to great success. Preschools used it to teach children pre-writing skills and letter formation. By allowing young children to experiment with the shaving cream and see the results they will learn much information about how shapes and lines are formed (which will help them later when they start writing their letters). You can also help them to learn their letters by modeling writing the child's name, or words for favorite objects. If you are doing a letter of the week program, you could model writing that week's letter and invite your child to copy you. Children in older classrooms used this technique to practice writing sight words or spelling words.

In math class, you could use it to practice addition or multiplication facts that your child is becoming fluent in.

Overall, this is a great tool to have in your teaching toolkit for the early childhood/early elementary school grades.

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