Shaving Cream Art on a Mirror

Painting shaving cream clouds on a mirror is a beautiful way for kids to enjoy some sensory art and fun way to use a  mirror for play and learning. 

Okay!  I have another really cool shaving cream art activity for you, and it involves one of my new favourite items for play!  A mirror!  I’ve been dreaming of this one ever since I set up this Sensory Play on a Mirror a couple of weeks ago.  Did you see it?   Quick!  Pop over and check it out, but come right back because you won’t want to miss this one:  today we were painting clouds on a mirror!

Gather your supplies:

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This activity is very simple to set up.  You just need a mirror, a paint brush and a can of shaving cream.  We used the “foam” kind of shaving cream as opposed to the “gel”.  As the morning progressed, we also added some food colouring, but that step is optional.

Setting up:

You definitely want to do this on a day that the sky is sunny and blue.  If there are a few fluffy clouds up above that’s even better.

I set our mirror on a table (I use a second-hand coffee-table when we’re crafting outdoors) in the middle of the yard where there wouldn’t be any reflections of trees or houses or anything in the mirror.  I wanted the mirror to simply reflect the blue sky.

Have your child look into the mirror, and ask them what they see.  It takes a second or two for them to process the fact that they’re looking DOWN, and yet they’re seeing the sky and clouds.  There’s a real moment of surprise when realize what they’re looking at.

Now it’s time to invite them to paint their own clouds in the sky’s reflection.

Get painting:

I sprayed a puddle of shaving cream in front of each of the girls.  I learned later that pressing gently on the button would prevent the splattering that you see here (not that anyone really minded).

Then the girls got to work swirling and painting their clouds.

It wasn’t long before they abandoned their paint brushes, and were exploring the shaving cream with their hands, finger-painting and sliding and gliding their hands all over the mirror until it  was completely covered.

A couple of times, I hosed the mirror down and quickly dried it off so they could start again.

After they’d been mucking around for quite a while, I asked them if they’d like me to add some food colouring, and of course they said “yes”.  So I brought out some red and blue food colouring, and dotted their shaving cream with it, and they had a great, old time mixing and blending the colours on the mirror.

All said and done, they were probably at this activity for close to an hour.  It’s a wonderful sensory activity.  The scent of the shaving cream is amazing, and not over-powering when you’re playing with it outside, and the foam..  Oh that fluffy, slippery, lovely, luxurious foam!  Who wouldn’t enjoy playing in it?

Easy clean up:

I keep a large bowl of water and a towel nearby when we’re getting messy in the yard like this.  It makes clean up a snap.  The mirror and the table got a spray from the garden hose and sat in the sun to dry.

Shaving cream is one of our favourite sensory materials.  We’ve enjoyed it many times for both art and play.  You can check some of the ways we’ve used it in the following posts:

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Jackie is a mom, wife, home daycare provider, and the creative spirit behind Happy Hooligans. She specializes in kids’ crafts and activities, easy recipes, and parenting. She began blogging in 2011, and today, Happy Hooligans inspires more than 2 million parents, caregivers and Early Years Professionals all over the globe.