Indoor snowman fun
It’s winter, my children really want snow, but sadly, all we get at them moment is rain, rain and more rain, so last week we made our own snow!! It was fantastic messy fun!
It’s so simple to make, just mix cornflour and shaving foam. You do need quite a lot of both. I used a whole can of ‘value’ shaving foam and a whole box of cornflour.
We had fun mixing the ingredients up with our hands, exploring the texture, the stickiness, how it forms together. 
Next, we spent time simply playing with the ‘snow’. We made snowballs, a snowman and stuck raisins and a bit of dried apricot on it for the face. It looked quite authentic. We talked about how it felt and what we could do with it. My girls really enjoyed this and throughout the the messy play, Boo kept telling me “this is the best play ever!!” Well, it’s got to be a winner then hasn’t it?
After we had finished exploring the snow we made, we threw it away and used the rest of the shaving foam for some messy play. I added a little food colouring for them to mix in, to add even more interest. Again, this was amazing fun, swirling the pretty colours round before it turned pink, then simply playing with the texture. We also wrote letters in it and drew shapes.
My girls had so much fun making snowmen and experimenting with messy play, we thought we’d have another go as a whole family at the weekend, so BB didn’t miss out. We did the same as before, except we made one of the snowmen out of bicarbonate of soda instead of cornflour. It did have a slightly different texture to the cornflour which was very interesting, it was much finer.
Everyone had a fantastic time, BB made snowballs, a snowman (which he was very proud of) and then we got out the cutters and made shapes. It was interesting watching what the children came up with.
Next, they all decided they wanted to take this messy play a little further, so got in with it! They buried their feet, they talked about the textures and how their feet felt, they laughed and giggled before finally admitting they’d had enough and got out.
Before throwing the snow away, because we used bicarbonate of soda, we decided to pour some vinegar on it to see what happened……it made loads of bubbles! This was fantastic for the children to watch….a chemical reaction. They got very excited!
Lastly, we got the shaving foam out again on its own. BB loved this and got completely covered in foam, even in his hair and face, knees and feet! It was incredibly messy, but good clean mess, that was sorted very quickly and easily
I would seriously recommend giving this a go, we all had so many giggles and it was lovely to spend time talking and watching the children’s imagination develop. They learnt a lot about texture, language, colour mixing, modelling, letters and basic fun! I can’t believe we made an indoor snowman without real snow! We LOVED it!
Brilliant idea, it looks so much fun, will have to try! xx #minicreations
Oh do, it’s great fun and the mess is all good clean mess!
Looks brilliant! Clearly loads of fun, so best give it a go, thanks
Have a go, it lots of fun
This looks like so much fun! I think we will try this next week if the rain is still here!
Give it a try, it’s fun for everyone
The snowmen are a really clever idea. I am reluctant to do too much messy play, it brings me out in palpitations!
If you want to do messy play, this is the one to do…..its all CLEAN mess!
That sounds like an excellent half term activity, never even thought of making these before!
They are great, give it a try!
I think my kids would enjoy that more than making real snowmen outside!
We did all have loads of fun
In the absence of the real thing this is great, no getting cold either!
Oh yes, lovely and warm inside
This is GENIUS! I love! So much learning out of one activity – sensory play, art, creativity, science, literacy! FABULOUS! Thanks for liking up with #SavouringtheSeason
Thank you x
Lucas says – ooooohhh I am literally ‘melting’ with excitement as this!!! Such messy play – the Mother’s gonna hate this. I am so gonna be doing this!!!!! Thanks for linking to #minicreations
Ooh, go do it! It’s so much fun
We love making this! Did a bath full of it once!
I bet that was fab!
Ohh wow! That looks like great fun!
It was fab!
ooh fantastic! will have to try that – we do shaving foam play and cornflour play/gloop but have never tried them together. popping by from savouringtheseason. Rebecca @TheBeesleyBuzz
Give it a go, it’s such good fun
This looks immense! And far less cold. Brilliant idea! Thank you for linking to PoCoLo x
It was a big messy play session, but fantastic!
We love messy play. I did shaving foam with Potato last summer, when he was just over 1 and thought it was fab. I love the idea of using it with the cornflour or bicarb to make ‘snow’ though. We need something to make up for the total lack of the real stuff this winter! #MiniCreations
Exactly, the children needed something different to give them a boost
What a brilliant idea Karen! Sounds like it was so much fun too. POD would absolutely love to do this so thank you #whatsthestory
Thank you, it is loads of fun, so much fun we did it twice!
Amazing idea – I never would have thought of doing this.
Thanks for linking up with the Parenting Pin It Party this week.
Thanks, it’s loads of fun
I can’t wait to this type of activity with my daughter next year (she’s 9 months and puts everything in the mouth so not appropriate this year).
Fab, it’s worth remembering!
That is something I have never done with my boys and they are now heading fast to the age where they will need shaving foam for it’s true use … #SIGH