Shaving cream writing {learning through sensory play}

Since the start of the school year, both kids have been learning at full speed. At the start of the year, QBoy could recognize all his numbers but still struggled to write many of them. He has also been working on learning sight words using the You Can Read program from 1+1+1=1. XGirl, on the other hand, has also been learning her numbers as well as her letters (using our own curriculum, some of which I shared about in this post). 

One afternoon both kids had been struggling a bit with writing various things. I really wanted them to get it right, but they were finding it very laborious to keep erasing their work and re-writing it. So to spice it up, I pulled out some trays and some shaving cream and invited them to try some shaving cream writing.

Click here if you want more information about teaching the alphabet in a fun, hands-on, and multi-sensory way. 

I placed just a dollop of shaving cream in the middle of each kid’s tray.

I then invited them to spread the shaving cream all over the tray in order to create their writing surface. At this point, I was already hearing giggles.

I then started giving QBoy words to spell.

And I gave XGirl numbers and letters to write.

The kids loved the sensory aspect to this activity. They also loved how easy it was to “erase” a mistake by smearing the shaving cream. And I loved how easy it was for me to support their learning with the shaving cream writing. I could guide their hands to form the letter/number/word correctly if needed. And I could quickly write an example in the shaving cream for them to copy.

This shaving cream writing activity really spiced up our learning one afternoon. I also directly credit this activity with helping XGirl learn to write the number ‘4.’ She had been struggling with how to correctly form the number until we did shaving cream writing. With this activity, she was having so much fun and found it so easy to practice the number over and over that she built some muscle memory and finally learned how to write a ‘4,’ which made her a very happy girl!

Have questions about teaching the alphabet? We’ve got answers! Click here to learn more.

More reading resources

More sight word posts from Gift of Curiosity:

• Sight word ball toss game
• Sight word magic
• Sight word tic-tac-toe
  
  

You can find more ideas for supporting children’s reading skills on my Literacy Activities for Kids page and my Reading, Writing, and Spelling Skills Pinterest board. 

Follow Katie @ Gift of Curiosity’s board Reading, Writing, and Spelling skills on Pinterest.