Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Works for me Wednesday: Mom, I'm Bored Edition!

I don't have kids (hence the title of my blog), but I do teach preschool, so I thought I would hop right in on this week's Works for Me Wednesday: Mom, I'm Bored! Edition.

How would you like an activity for your kiddos that is inexpensive, educational, AND fun? Look no further than your hubby's can of shaving cream! Squirt a nice-sized mound on the table in front of your little one and watch them get to work! You can use this as purely a sensory activity for the younger ones, letting them squish & squash to their hearts content (with supervision, of course)! Give them toy cars to drive through it or cookie cutters to make patterns/designs in the foam.

For older kids, you can have them draw pictures, practice writing their name, letters, numbers or word wall words. When I taught kindergarten, I would do this activity on one of the last days of school every year (I forgot to do it in preschool this year) and the kids would rave about it the rest of the day! They would each take turns (at their table) choosing word wall words or classmates' names for the other kids at the table to write.

And best of all, as the kids are playing, the foam dissolves into nothingness and leaves your tables sparkling clean! That works for me!

5 comments:

Niki Jolene said...

Sounds super fun! I am going to start teaching preschool this fall so I will have to remember this.

:)

Kara said...

Brecken did this at preschool for St. Patrick's Day- they used green shaving cream to "paint" construction paper shamrocks, and the shamrock is now puffy! It's brilliant!

Teri said...

Kara - they probably mixed some glue with it, too, to stabilize it! I've seen that on Santa Claus's beard for Christmas projects :)

Melissa said...

I read your blog a few days ago and I remember this activity from when I taught preschool. Heck, I even did it with my 3rd graders one year for fun and to get their desks clean.

I left my daughter's little plastic picnic table outside for a couple of weeks. I brought it in yesterday so we could start using it for art in the house. It was dirty and I was going to take some Clorox wipes to it when I remembered your blog post. At 1 1/2 she wasn't to sure about the activity but enjoyed it a little and I enjoyed it a lot. Plus her table is now very clean!

Heather@justdoingmybest said...

I forgot about this idea! When my children were young, I put ketchup and mustard on their highchair trays while I was cooking. They were entertained and if they ate some, no harm done.