January: Foam Dough


I'm brand new to our dough of the month: foam dough, but after doing a quick search on Pinterest, I quickly discovered a fun looking rainbow foam dough, a foam dough recipe, and a photo tutorial on how to make foam dough. The fun part? It is super easy and requires only 2 main ingredients.

Foam Dough = Shaving Cream + Cornstarch. Then add color to make it pretty!



I would one day love to try this All Natural Homemade Shaving Cream for foam dough. But, this is my first time, so I experimented with shaving cream from the dollar store and I used liquid acrylic paint to color it (was planning to use food coloring, but it went missing when I needed it).

We mixed the shaving cream and paint and then added the cornstarch.

Mixing is messy fun.







In fact, I think the kids had more fun MAKING foam dough then they did playing with it.



If it was too crumbly we added more shaving cream to soften the dough.



Bo had free reign to squirt shaving cream. He loved this and took his job very seriously!


My goal in this sensory dough series is to build language with sensory play and have FUN with Bo, my three year old who has a language delay.



But, I was too caught up in making foam dough that I forgot I was working on building language!  I will share more next month, but thankfully, this type of play naturally lends itself to building language, and this day Bo said two new words: "paint" and "ball."

Speaking of new words, Bo's new words and phrases this week (that I caught) include:

  • heart, toy, plates, bowl, Mali (he's always called him "how how"), ah pool (our pool)

And he started saying 2, 3 and 4 word sentences this week:


  • I see.

  • I otay. (okay)

  • I go, too.

  • I you, too. (I love you, too) ♥

  • I play you.

  • I go with you. (though he uses a /d/ sound for the g in go)

The other day, he was sad and kept saying "pop moon, pop moon" and I couldn't figure out what he was saying until Jordan told me he popped Bo's balloon.

Today, Bo wanted to go with his dad and I told him he'd be in the car all day if he went.  He assured me he was okay with that by saying, "I go cah ah day." So, of course I let him go. That was his first 5 word sentence! :'-)

(I'm sure that I will stop being so detailed, but as I mentioned, this is all still very exciting for me!)




Enhancing Learning

To tie this into our learning, I planned to make a model solar system for astronomy using the foam dough so we made up various colors.



We made an "earth."



And a "sun."




But, while dryer foam dough is crumbly, wetter foam dough does not naturally lend itself to holding it's shape. But, it is fun as a sensory dough. In fact, it has a similar feel and consistency as Kid Concoction's Magic Muck - corn starch and water. It can be formed into a solid, and then it melts into a liquid right in your hands. But, the shaving cream gives foam dough more of a slow flow, rather than a melt.

Do you have a foam dough recipe or project that you'd like to share? Read the guidelines for linking up here, and link up!

We'll see you next month for Cloud Dough!


This post is a part of the Best of the Best Sensory Doughs: 12 Months of Sensory Dough!  Every month, on the 12th, these fabulous moms will be sharing a post on a different sensory dough:

26 comments

  1. What amazing pictures! I love how this turned out! I love the colors, the language development and especially the earth and sun! Thank you for co-hosting with me

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  2. Michelle, boy they sure had a blast making that dough! I've never made it before but I know BOTH boys would enjoy it. How many shaving cream bottles did you need/use?


    5 word sentence! That is so awesome!! I'm sure this sensory experience will make those words just fly out of his mouth!

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  3. It's looks like the had a lot of fun! Love all the colors!

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  4. I love your photography, as always, is it always sunny where you are?! and the wonderful news about Bo's first 5-word sentence!! What a wonderful idea to bring in solar system learning -- your earth was awesome, our dough was too crumbly to try to get it into such a nice ball :)

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  5. Looks like a lot of fun.

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  6. Valerie @ Glittering MuffinsJanuary 12, 2014 at 8:37 AM

    Love the dough earth and sun. Glad your little man is making sentences now :)

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  7. This looks sooo fun! I cannot believe we have never done this activity before. Your solar system is brilliant, and I love your photos!

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  8. Rachel @I Heart Crafty ThingsJanuary 12, 2014 at 12:01 PM

    Your photos of how much fun your kids had making foam dough are priceless!! I love that they had so much fun in the process of making the dough. Your Earth and Sun turned out lovely too!!

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  9. Thank you, Danya :) It is an honor! I appreciate the motivation to do this!!

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  10. We might have used 3 bottles of shaving cream and 3 boxes of cornstarch, and we most definitely had too much foam dough left over. I think one or 2 cans (an extra just in case you need to soften the dough) and one box of cornstarch would be plenty. It IS so exciting - I don't think it will get old until he starts talking back (ha!)

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  11. Thank you, Jennifer!

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  12. Thank you, Amy! And, I wish! We have had a lot of snow and overcast days, but we generally get a good number of days of sun - even though many of them are cold days.

    It didn't quite work as I had hoped - we were supposed to dry them and hang them in a box, but that wasn't going to happen with foam dough!

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  13. Thank you, Katie! It was our first time too!

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  14. Thank you, Rachel! Reminds me that the process if often more important than the end result. :)

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  15. […] end of breakfast it was gone. Next time, I’ll use a smaller jar. Later in the day, we made Foam Sensory Dough. Although cold and snowy out, it was a wonderfully sunny day today and that always motivates me to […]

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  16. Hi Michelle, I have been very much blessed by your generous sharing of your meticulous resourceful lessons! LOVE your lapbooking series that you do so thoroughly and thoughtfully with your kids! I am very excited to join this monthly experiment over here in Singapore! However, i am a bit unsure of what to do.... Do we post our attempts at lemonlimeadventures? I have also added you to my blogs that i follow. You know, you are one of the motivation for me to start blogging my experiences. As i have been blessed so much even so far away from you, i would also like to be a blessing. Thank You for teaching me on being a generous giver!

    God bless!
    sincerely,
    Angelia

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  17. Sorry Michelle, as you can see, i am new to blogging! i didn't realise my comment has been posted until i refreshed the page! : P Pls feel free to delete one of them if you deem fit.

    sincerely
    Angelia

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  18. No problem, Angelia! I'll reply soon!

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  19. So happy to have you stop by, Angelia! You post what you do with the monthly dough on your blog and then you are welcome to link up at any of the 12 blogger's blogs! (We all host the same linky!) Be sure to read the guidelines shared on Lemon Lime Adventures and then link up! So excited to have you join us!

    So happy that I inspired you to blog! I'm off to check out your blog!

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  20. What an awesome idea! I love the monthly dough and working on language and science! Thanks for sharing! I'm inspired! Maybe I'll join in next month!!

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  21. Oooo, Trish, I hope you do! Would love to have you!

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  22. That is quite a LOT of new words from Bo! Good going, Bo! And yes, most of the times, in activities like these I forget totally to work on words too! The process and the concentration they have for it, is so cute - I hardly feel I should intervene :) I LOVE ALL your pics this time... and tying this up with astronomy- what a great idea! I really need to try this with Aarya, I am sure he will just LOVE this as well (especially if i give him free reign on the shaving cream squirting too :D)

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  23. […] over to Delightful learning to see how foam dough is successfully made. As for me, i simply love the process of making […]

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  24. […] do this, we mixed up various colors of foam dough to make our […]

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