Rainbow Foam Dough

Like many sensory materials, this one has several names.  I've seen it all over, but from what I can tell it started with a mention by the Ooey Gooey Lady on Facebook and has been done by several bloggers at this point.  I always see this pin float by me on Pinterest - and now that I've played with the sensory material, I do think Foam Dough is the best name for it.  

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I was expecting it to be pretty fun, but WOW IS IT FUN.  You really ought to try it.  Because you will LOVE it.  We had one of S's grandmas staying with us this weekend and she and I just could not stop playing with this dough.  It's a safe bet that an activity is a total win if any adults around are just as engrossed with playing as the kid(s).   Now that I've hopefully convinced you to try it, I will warn you that it is messy.  Like really messy.  Maybe the messiest thing I've played with?  It cleaned up just fine for us, but I am thinking most people would rather play with this in a big bowl/tub/bin outside.  :)

Foam Dough has two ingredients in a roughly one to one ratio - cornstarch and shaving cream   I wanted to make rainbow Foam Dough, because, well - rainbows!!!!  So I started by coloring the shaving cream because I figured that would be easiest - I added liquid watercolors, but you could also use food coloring (this, coincidentally, is how we make Shaving Cream Paint).

Then I slowly added cornstarch to each cup and stirred until it started looking ever so slightly doughy.  We kept our dough on the wet side because it was so much fluffier.  The more cornstarch you add, the drier the dough, but it does lose some of that amazing foamy-puffy texture.  Ultimately I'd say our foam dough ended up being slightly more shaving cream than cornstarch.

 

It really is just so foamy and puffy and fluffy and AMAZING.  It's like touching a cloud or a marshmallow...or maybe a marshmallow cloud?  Anyway, the pictures simply do not do it justice.

You can roll it into pretty little balls.  S had her grandma and me on ball rolling duty - and then she would SMOOSH them.  :)

Smooooosh.

It really was such a blast and so unlike any other material we've played with.  Shaving cream is definitely not save to ingest, so poor little X had to sit this one out.  Maybe next year!

We sincerely hope you'll give this one a try - it is something you must experience!!!!

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Please always supervise your infant/child at play.  Please stay within arms reach and never leave infants/children unattended.

10+ Super Easy Sensory Plays

All of the plays in this series are:

Appropriate for all ages
Use two or fewer ingredients
Use ingredients commonly found in a home

My hope with this series was to remind everyone that play doesn't have to be complicated to be fun!  And for those of you who are new to sensory play - I wanted to give you some nice and easy ideas for starting up.

To read more details about each, please click on the links.   They will lead you to the complete post.  :)
As I add more Super Easy Sensory Plays, I will add them to this post!

Cornstarch and Water

Dirt and Worms

Ice and Warm Water

Oatmeal Textures

Soap Foam

Wet Cotton Balls

Baby Safe Cloud Dough

Water Play

Birdseed

Rice Play

Dried Pasta

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Please always supervise your infant/child at play.  Please stay within arms reach and never leave infants/children unattended.

Sensory Starter Kit for under $20 from the Dollar Tree

This is a post in our Play on a Budget series.  Other posts include:

Play on a Budget: Tips and Tricks

Our Favorite Free Sensory Materials

A Sensory Starter Kit for under $20 from Target

I thought I'd write a post on how to set up a starter kit of commonly used sensory/play materials for those of you who are just getting started.  Every person has their own preferences, of course, but here's a list of what I'd buy (and why!) if I had a budget of $20 and could only shop at one store - the Dollar Tree.  I picked the Dollar Tree because it seems to be everywhere in the US, and ought to be pretty easily accessible for most of you.  If you don't have one near you, but do have a Target - I've put together a Target sensory kit here.

I was able to come in under budget again because a few of the things on my list were actually less than a dollar (baking soda and salt!).  I have noticed a lot of variation in what is available at each Dollar Tree, so this is based off of the selection at mine - you may have more or less available at yours (hopefully more!).

First off, I had to include baking soda and vinegar because we SO love them.  Just plain baking soda and vinegar is so much fun.  We've also used them to make Fizzing Gelatin and our Fizzing Hidden Ocean World, and in Encouraging Little Scientists, to name a few. 

Funnels, a big scooping spoon, and a set of measuring cups are things we use all the time for simple sensory play.  Because they have such a wide application, I knew I wanted them in my kit.

Next from the food section, I grabbed oats because they are such a fun material to play with.  You could set up our Oatmeal Textures Sensory Bin with these.  I chose salt because it's a great material for dumping and scooping.  We like to color ours, and you can see us playing with it in our Funnels and Tubes post.  I bought flax seed because it would be a great substitution for birdseed - it's still a seed and would behave similarly - so you could do something like our Birdseed Sensory Play with the flax seeds.  I bought cooking oil for use in making baby safe Cloud Dough.  

I added Penne pasta for art, making necklaces, or doing a Dry Pasta sensory play; I added Linguine for making our Dirt and Worms sensory bin, or our Rainbow Spaghetti.  I included beans because they are fun to plant and grow and can also be used as a fill material in small worlds or as a standalone sensory material.  And finally I included rice because we love to play with rice by itself, as we did in our Rice Play and we also love to color it and add it to small worlds/sensory bins.  You can read how we make rainbow rice in our How To Color Rice post.

I grabbed shaving cream, which we've used in a Shaving Cream Search and in our Dragon World small world.  I also grabbed four sponges for use in a Washing Station.  And I've included a bag of cotton balls for the Wet Cotton Ball sensory play and/or for making Baked Cotton Balls.

Our Dollar Tree didn't have a great selection of miniatures when I was there, but these guys were pretty cute, so I added them as "guys" for small world play.

Play foam is fun for Window Art (we also used it to make our Recycled Car City) and we use pom poms frequently (though I don't have any posts up currently involving them, so you'll just have to trust me on that).

Here is the complete sensory kit I would put together for someone starting out if I had just $20:

Now, there are a few other fantastic things that I'd like to point out at the Dollar Tree:

These are FABULOUS art/craft supplies.  All of the above items are frequently utilized in our Art Room, so I figured I would point those out, since at $1 a piece, they are a great deal.  I joke not, the Dollar Tree is the BEST place to buy googly eyes!  They have the assorted sizes and the huge eyes are hilarious.

Recognize these from my small worlds?  Love all three of these.  We have several packs of the mixed gems.

And check these out!  These are officially "sound tubes" but they'd work great for our Funnels and Tubes.  Basically all you'd need to complete the set-up we had in that post is some suction cups, since the Dollar Tree also carries funnels and salt!

Our Dollar Tree had a lot of what I wanted, but there were a few items that I would still want to add to a kit if there was room in the budget/they were available in the store.  I'd love to add flour to complete the recipe for Cloud Dough.  I was also SO saddened by the lack of cornstarch since it's my personal favorite (you can see how we've played with it with Cornstarch and Water, to make Chilly Ice Cream Goo, and in my Dinosaurs and Sticky Mud world).  Finally, I would want to add some sort of coloring - be it food coloring, or our favorite - liquid watercolors.  Liquid watercolors last longer, are more vibrant, come in a wider variety of colors, and are completely washable (at least in our experience).  We buy our liquid watercolors from Discount School Supply.

To make things as easy as possible, I've also typed up a free printable shopping list, which you can access here:  Printable Dollar Tree Shopping List.

For further reading in the vein of Play on a Budget, check out:

100 Things You can Purchase from the Dollar Tree and Use in Play by Growing a Jeweled Rose

Sensory Materials that Last by Train Up a Child

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Please always supervise your infant/child at play.  Please stay within arms reach and never leave infants/children unattended.

Chilly Ice Cream Goo

S and I love ice cream.  So naturally when we saw Play Create Explore's recipe for ice cream dough, we had to try it.  And we loved it!  The only sad part for me was that it isn't edible - so I got to wondering - could I come up with a recipe for edible (not tasty - I'd leave that to the real thing) pretend ice cream?  I thought for weeks and couldn't come up with anything great.  Then I saw Growing a Jeweled Rose post her Freezy Dough (that scoops and melts like real ice cream!) and inspiration struck!  I could freeze the ingredients I'd been considering to make them stick together like ice cream!!!  So last week, S and I decided to try an experiment - frozen, melty, pretend - but EDIBLE! ice cream!!!

And so Chilly Ice Cream Goo was created:

We made vanilla and chocolate and they smell DELICIOUS.

You may notice it's shaped a little differently.  Our Chilly Ice Cream Goo does not scoop.  But it does melt just like real ice cream - and it is COLD like real ice cream.  In fact, if you aren't actively handling it, it stays frozen for an hour or more (and one of the days we were playing with it last week it was above 80 degrees out).  Another really cool trait is that it is totally reusable.  You just add a little water, stir, and pop it back in the freezer for another day of play.  We've been playing with our batch for a week now and it's still just as good as new!  If you do plan on reusing it, I'd recommend something reusable for sprinkles - we used plastic pony beads.

S checking out how cold it is!  Brrrr!

Doesn't it look just like chocolate ice cream?

S had so much fun dripping melted Chilly Ice Cream Goo over the chunks that were still frozen.

So realistic!

As you touch it with your finger, it starts to melt.

Decorating an ice cream sundae for me.  :)

S loved having several different sized bowls in play.  She would transfer and melt, drizzle and drip - she played for about three full hours!

Here's an example of how the Chilly Ice Cream Goo behaves.  These were both taken out for play at the same time, but the bowl on the left has been heavily handled.  The more you handle it, the more it melts.  If you are not handling it as much, it will retain its shape and temperature for an hour or more!

And one of the best parts is how fun it is once it's melted!  So squishy and goopy!

And drippy!

Once melted it will grip the spoon and container it's in for several seconds when upside down - so you can hold it over your head and watch it momentarily defy gravity!  Amazing!

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To make the vanilla, I used a flat Gladware container (any container will do) and add:

1-2 Tbsp Vanilla Extract(depending on how strong you want the scent to be)

1.5 cups cornstarch

Just a little over a cup of water

For chocolate:

2-3 Tbsp cocoa powder(depending on how strong you want the scent to be)

1.5 cups cornstarch

Just a little over a cup of water

You want to add just enough water that you can easily and smoothly stir the mixture - it should be the consistency of cake batter.  Once you've mixed thoroughly, pop in the freezer for 4 or more hours.  Though all ingredients are safe for consumption - it does not taste good and is not intended for eating.  I did take a taste and it was gritty and bitter, so I'm guessing most toddler would be deterred by that alone.  But nevertheless - this is not intended to be food, so please do not encourage active eating of it!

I used a kitchen mallet to break it into chunks (it is REALLY frozen when it comes out).

It was a HUGE hit.  We've played with it every day - and S is just mesmerized by it.  I can't get over how much it smells, looks, and melts like real ice cream.  Too much fun!

We very much hope you will give it a try!  It can be messy as it melts, so I did use the tips I outline in Managing Messy Play to contain it.

PS - Just as I posted this, Growing a Jeweled Rose posted about all the fun they had with Freezy Goo - same substance but used in a totally different way - be sure to check out the crazy colorful fun they had with it.  Oh, and she has the same feelings I do about it - it is just too cool to not try!

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Please always supervise your infant/child at play.  Please stay within arms reach and never leave infants/children unattended.

Be sure to also check out the two other (very different and very fun!) recipes for pretend ice cream that inspired mine:

The Original Ice Cream Dough:  

Play Create Explore's Ice Cream Dough is much less messy and more of a dough.  You can scoop it and play with it just like real ice cream, but without any melty mess!  This is another one of S's favorites and you can find the recipe for Ice Cream Dough here.

The First Cold and Melty Freezy Dough:

Growing a Jeweled Rose's Freezy Dough scoops and melts like real ice cream!  It is an entirely different sensory experience, so be sure to give it a try!  You can find the recipe for Freezy Dough here.