Soap foam is a favorite go-to sensory activity around here. We have tried scented soap foam and tie dye soap foam in the past (as well as many other variations) and my kids just love it. Even I enjoy playing with it!
Recently, the boys have been playing with our giant box of cookie cutters. It's one of their favorite "toys." So I decided it might be fun to pair the cookie cutters with some soap foam and do a little writing and fine motor practice.
The result is this alphabet soap foam painting activity, which my boys loved! I knew it would be a hit given that simply adding letters or numbers to anything will always grab my hyperlexic son's interest.
Soap Foam Painting Activity: What You'll Need
This activity is part sensory play, part process art activity, and part prewriting practice. It combines fine motor and sensory all into one fun activity. Here's what you'll need to recreate this activity at home:
- Liquid soap and water - To make the soap foam that will be the base of our sensory and soap foam painting activity. Instructions below if you've never made it before. You can use dish soap, castile soap, or similar.
- Blender, electric hand mixer, whisk, or stand mixer - To whip up the sensory soap foam. Although I do mention an alternative way to make soap foam using soap pumps.
- Liquid watercolor paints - It is a painting activity after all...
- Small cups or a muffin tin for the paints - We personally reuse little plastic applesauce or fruit cups for activities like this.
- Alphabet cookie cutters - We used the ones that are included in this Wilton 101 Cookie Cutters set. The alphabet cookie cutters will be the stencils for painting/writing letters in the soap foam.
- Paint brushes - Again, it's a painting activity so you kind of need these.
- Large plastic container - To contain all that soap foam we're about to make...
To prep this activity, you'll first have to make soap foam (details below) and add it to a large plastic container.
Next, you'll have to dilute some liquid watercolors with water in some small cups or a muffin tin. We personally like to reuse plastic applesauce cups for this purpose, but a muffin tin or small bowls work great too. We made rainbow colors because life is better with rainbows, but feel free to make whatever colors you want.
Finally, put the alphabet cookie cutters, paint brushes, and the containers of paint next to the container of soap foam. Then it's time to play!
Soap Foam Recipe: How to Make Sensory Soap Foam
To make soap foam, you'll need to mix some liquid soap with a splash or two of water. How much you'll need will depend on the size of the container, but a little goes a long way. We personally like to use castile soap for our soap foam and happened to use almond scented castile soap for this activity, which smells incredible. So our finished batch of soap foam happens to be scented.
Anyway, you're going to have to whip the soap and water until it's bubbly and foamy. You can mix it up using a blender, electric mixer, or even a stand mixer. Or you can simply whip it up using a whisk and some good old fashioned muscle power. It just takes a bit longer by hand. But any of these methods will produce the fluffy soap foam you need for this activity.
Another way to make soap foam is to use a foam soap dispenser. Fill an empty foaming soap bottle with approximately 2 tablespoons of castile soap, top it up with water, and then let the kids pump the soap into a large container. Most kids love to pump those soap pump containers! This method works best if you're only making a small amount.
Your Kids Will Love Painting Letters in Soap Foam
For this activity, you'll simply place an alphabet cookie cutter on the soap foam and paint the inside of it with some of the diluted liquid watercolor paint. That's it.
The kids can paint individual letters or even spell words and paint those. My boys opted to paint random letters versus full words into the bubble foam, as you can see below.
The painted cookie cutter letters look so pretty. I especially love the rainbow painted W that five year old J did.
When the cookie cutters are removed, you can sort of see the painted letters floating on the soap foam.
After painting for quite some time, my boys decided they were done painting letters. So they dumped the remaining liquid watercolor paints in, used their hands to mix up some really colorful soap foam, and turned it into a full fledged sensory activity.
Overall, this soap foam painting activity was a hit! It was great for working on fine motor skills, a little sensory play, and some alphabet learning.
Other Preschool Painting Activities You'll Love
Painting to Music Process Art & Bumblebee Craft for Kids
Fun Summer Art Activity: Painting with Dandelions
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