This shaving cream car wash is a terrific activity for kids who love cars and trucks and who love messy play and love playing with cars. It’s a great sensory activity that will keep toddlers and preschoolers entertained for ages!
It’s been absolutely gorgeous here this week! Hot and summer-like and it’s only March! We’ve been spending our days outside, and the temps have been perfect for getting messy and playing with water, so we set up a shaving cream car wash yesterday.
This was such a fun activity for the kids. It smelled great, felt great, and it was a treat for the eyes too!
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The kids loved watching the tracks their vehicles made in the shaving cream, and had a blast getting their cars messy and then cleaning them off and starting all over again.
How to set up our shaving cream car wash
I lined up three stations for this activity:
- A station to get the cars dirty
- another to rinse the cars and get them clean
- and a third one to dry the cars
Station 1: You can see, for the first station, I just used a storage container and covered the lid with shaving cream.
Station 2: Next to the car wash, I turned over a laundry basket, and set a glass dish on top. I put a couple of non-slip rubber pads underneath the dish to keep it from sliding around.
Then, I filled the dish with warm water and added a couple of drops of blue food colouring. This was the rinse-station.
Station 3: A third stool with a tea-towel draped over the top served as a place to dry the cars.
The Hooligans played together at the car-wash for over an hour, washing, rinsing and drying their cars, and starting all over again.
This little guy stayed at it for over an hour and a half! He could play with cars all day long, so I knew this activity would be a hit with him.
I think that’s a sure sign that it was a hit!
More Fun Activities for Kids Who Love Cars:
For more fun shaving cream activities:
Sensory Art with Shaving Cream
Giant Shaving Cream Magna Doodle
Painting Clouds on a Mirror with Shaving Cream
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Jackie is a mom, wife, home daycare provider, and the creative spirit behind Happy Hooligans. She specializes in kids’ crafts and activities, easy recipes, and parenting. She began blogging in 2011, and today, Happy Hooligans inspires more than 2 million parents, caregivers and Early Years Professionals all over the globe.
Sara Ballard
I love this idea and I’m sure my boys will also. Looks like we will be washing cars after naps! Thanks!
crystal@growingajeweledrose
What a fun twist to the shaving foam! Love this idea!
Sara
What a perfectly timed post! Rearranging our craft supplies, I came across a can of shaving cream and was wondering what to use it for, this is such a novel idea, I love it 🙂
Amber
Just curious I seen lots of shaving cream activities Id like to use however We are not allowed to use shaving cream unless it doesn’t say “keep out of the reach of children” what kind to you use and does it have this warning? I have not been able to find any that doesn’t have the warning.
happyhooligans
Hi Amber, i know of others who are advised against using shaving cream and the closest alternative they’ve found is canned whipped cream. I do know that some have found while looking at the fine print in their regulations that they are only ADVISED not to use it. They’re not actually prohibited from using it, so you might want to check your regulations to see if you’re actually completely prohibited from using it. Sorry I can’t be of more help. I don’t know if any shaving creams come without a warning.
Good luck! Jackie
Tina
You could use the kids bath foam. I find it in WalMart. It comes in different colors.
happyhooligans
Tina, that is absolutely brilliant!
Julie
Just made this now for my 2kids, they are havin SO MUCH FUN in the sun!! Love it
Stephanie, One Caring Mom
I love this idea so much. My boys have so many cars and they love having “car washes” but I’ve never thought to try one with shaving cream. I remember using shaving cream to wash our desks in elementary school and how much I loved that. Thanks for sharing this!