It is important to remember that play is actually the way that children work. Sometimes creating an activity that lets them be free and messy is the most encouraging way we can show them to play and learn. Messy art has been proven to stimulate the senses as well as creative experimentation. The children love getting their hands into materials with different textures and they enjoy mixing the colors until they spill off the plates. While to adults, it can seem like a mess is being made, the chid is interacting with the materials in a way that develops  hand and eye coordination as well as sensory development.

Using shaving cream and powdered food coloring, we mixed our own colors and made marbled paper. They squirted the amount of shaving cream they wanted to use and were given small coffee mixing sticks to control the color with. They swirled and twirled the cream and color until new color mixtures were created, which they pressed their papers into. They had so much fun, and because shaving cream is soap based, its was easy to clean up afterwards.