~Masa de Espuma~ Foam Dough

Messy Monday anyone? This foam dough is unlike any sensory experience we have ever had! Be warned, it is not for the faint at heart. It gets messy. Like, hose your children off outside and then take a bath messy. Nevertheless, it is SO much fun and a great way to continue talking to your kiddos about colors in Spanish.

Here is what you will need*:
Shaving cream (I used the gel because that’s what I had but any kind will work)
-Corn starch (I didn’t have any and actually used tapioca starch which totally worked but I could tell that corn starch would have been better)
Liquid water colors (I finally bought some and WOW- so worth it, they will last forever too! They don’t dye skin and can be washed out of almost anything- you can totally use food coloring but be warned, it may stain)

I had my kids help me make it- that was half the fun! First we got different bowls and tiny spoons, then I added a little shaving cream and tapioca starch with a few drops of color and we mixed away. The fun thing about using the gel shaving cream is that you never know just how big it will get until it’s all mixed! We had so much fun watching it puff up and seeing the colors swirl. I would say you want equal parts shaving cream to corn starch (maybe a little less corn starch and 1:1) but you can adjust it as you go.

Then, unleash the madness by putting each colorful mountain of foamy dough into a bin and let your kiddos just go wild. It can be squeezed and formed into a ball, rolled into shapes, or (like my littles did) just spread and mashed everywhere. It is an amazing texture and so much fun to see the colors mix together. We talked about rainbow sequencing, color mixing and textures in Spanish as they worked for a little bit and then I just stepped back and drank some coffee quietly while they explored (winning for all!)

Words we practice:

All our Spanish color words!

Rojo, anaranjado (naranja), amarillo, verde, azul y morado (púrpura)

Mezclar (mehs-klahr) – to mix

Blando (blahn-doh)- soft

Apretar (ah-preh-tahr)- to squeeze

Arco íris (ahr-koh ee-rees)- rainbow

It was an amazing morning activity, and even though my children smelled like business men for the rest of the day (maybe unscented shaving cream would be best in the future…), it was totally worth it!

I’d love to see what you come up with! Have you ever tried foam dough before? Thank you to Fun at Home with Kids for the inspiration!

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