Quick and easy to set up and you don’t need to order random supplies from Amazon, sensory foam made from chickpea water is a great little activity for kids.
What’s great is that it’s super cheap, lots of fun and it’s safe without any chemicals, perfect if you have little ones who can’t help but put their hands in their mouth. What I hadn’t realised before I ventured into this sensory foam is that chickpea water or bean water is often used as vegan alternative to eggs. It whisks up and has the same consistency as egg whites and is referred to as aquafaba.
What You Need to Make Sensory Foam
- The water from one can of chickpeas
- Cream of tartar (not essential)
- Food colouring (not essential)
- Electric whisk
How to Make Sensory Foam
- Discard the chickpeas and save the water from the can next time you’re cooking. Usually you’d just rinse the chickpeas to remove the brine but it’s perfect for making this foam.
- Whisk the chickpea water up in a bowl. I’d definitely recommend an electric whisk unless you’re on a muscle building mission. It will take a few minutes but it’s just like egg white and will soon start to thicken. Keep going until you get firm peaks.
- I think you could probably just leave it like that and start playing but I’d read that cream of tartar will help stabilise it so we added in a couple of heaped teaspoons.
- Just to add to the fun, we put in a few drops of blue food colouring. If you have opened several cans of chickpeas for your dinner, you could split the water up and create multiple batches in different colours.
The sensory foam is now ready to play with. You could extend the activity by hiding animals inside (we went for dinosaurs) or tuck in some ice cubes for a chilly surprise. Talk about how it feels and looks and just have fun.
