Coral Reef Bath Play

Wugs' coral reef bath marks my first attempt at doing something creative for Wugs' bath time.  Just 4 days later I gave birth to Dooey, so I'm glad I managed to sneak one fun activity in before the demands of a newborn baby took over.

I made the beach and coral reef scenery by drawing the images on foam sheets, cutting them out and dipping them in water which made them stick to the window.  The coral reef scenery was made from some glittery foam sheets, which added a nice effect. I dyed the bath water blue and added a couple of interactive elements: A bucket of "sand" which was made from shaving cream, yellow food colouring and a little sea salt (Wugs had great fun painting the tiles with this) and a tub of "ice cream" which was actually a bath bomb with a turtle inside.  I haven't introduced Wugs to bath bombs yet, so he was a bit wary of all the fizzing, but was thrilled to see the little turtle popping out.    


A successful first attempt at creative bath time play which I measured according to the speed in which Wugs fell asleep that night!

What we used:
Foam sheets
Glittery foam sheets
Blue food colouring
Shaving cream
Yellow food colouring
Sea salt
Bath bomb - I followed this recipe.
Bath toy (small enough to fit inside the bath bomb mould)
Spades

Shaving Cream Art

Today we experimented with mixing shaving cream and food colouring after watching this amazing craft from Teaching with TLC  It's at times like this that I'm grateful I do not have a son who likes to explore everything orally.

I lined a baking tin with foil and I sprayed the shaving cream over the baking tin, spreading it around to form a thin, even layer.  Then I added a few drops of blue food colouring to the shaving cream randomly and encouraged Wugs to mix the two together.  At various stages during the mixing process I pressed down an A4 sheet on top of the mix lightly, making sure the underside of the sheet was fully covered.  After 30 seconds, I took the sheet away and removed the shaving cream by using the side of a squeegee and gently scraping off the cream.  The combination of the shaving cream and the food colouring left an amazing mark on the paper.  Part of the way through the process we added green food colouring, which together with the blue, made it look like an underwater scene.  We also experimented with orange and purple food colouring.

What we used:
Baking tray
Foil
Gillette shaving cream
Blue, green, orange, purple food colouring
A4 white card
Spoon
Squeegee (a window wiper would also work)

We used some of the shaving cream art as a beautiful underwater backdrop to my nephew's birthday card: