Sponsored by: M&T Bank
By: Val Drapeau
Education Coordinator
Materials:
1 clean baking pan
Shaving cream
Spatula (optional)
Sight Words or spelling words to practice
Length:
Set up: 1 minute
Activity: 15-20 minutes per child
Academic Subject:
English Language Arts (ELA)
This lesson supports areas of Early Childhood Development and PreK Curriculum:
· PreK Standards: Learning sight words to develop reading skills. It additionally supports writing practice.
Practicing sight words and spelling words doesn’t have to be a routine task just to check off your homeschooling to-do list. Here’s a fun and creative way to make it fresh and fun!
Directions:
Step 1: Spray a generous amount of shaving cream onto the baking pan. Pressing the dispenser on the shaving cream can is a great way to practice a fine motor skill! Have your child roll up their sleeves.
Step 2: Let your child use a spatula to spread the shaving cream into a thinner layer on the baking pan, or even better, let them spread it out with their hands! Getting messy is part of the fun!!!
Step 3: Have a list or key ring of sight words or spellings words for them to practice. Give them one word at a time to write in the shaving cream. It’s ok if they get it wrong, they can just swipe the shaving cream back and forth to erase and try again! Touching a substance like shaving cream is also a cool sensory experience for kids. Let them squish it between their fingers at the end of the activity to experience how it feels!
After working on the sight words, encourage your PreK/K student to practice drawing things like shapes, numbers and letters for fun too! Older kids (Grades 1-5) can work on addition/subtraction/multiplication/division problems and sentence writing in the shaving cream!
Vocabulary Words
· Fine motor skill – Skills that require greater control of the small muscles than large ones, especially for hand-eye coordination or for precise hand and finger movement.
· Spatula – An implement with a broad, flat, blunt blade, used for mixing and spreading things, especially in cooking and painting.
· Sensory – Conveying nerve impulses from the sense organs to the nerve centers.
