Today I wanted to share a fun kids craft that supports life skill development: using an iron and ironing board. To make the soap shavings, we also used a vegetable peeler, so this is a great way to incorporate fine motor skills into kitchen tasks needed for using kitchen items like the vegetable peeler. We also worked on a few different skills with this craft: cutting with scissors, fine motor skills, bilateral coordination, and executive functioning. Be sure to check out our music bookmark craft as well.
Soap Shavings Bookmark Craft
To make Soap Shaving Bookmarks:
You’ll need a few materials:
- Bars of soap in several colors
- vegetable peeler
- Two sheets of Wax Paper
- Iron
- Dish Towel
- Hole Punch
- Ribbon
This soap craft is as beautiful as it is simple. Kids will love to use a vegetable peeler on bars of soap to create soap shavings.
Here are the steps to make this soap shaving bookmark craft:
- To make the bookmarks, lay a sheet of wax paper out on a hard surface like a cookie sheet or cutting board.
Using a bar of soap to practice using a vegetable peeler is a great beginner step for kids learning to use kitchen tools, because the soap peels shavings much easier than an apple skin peels away from the apple.
2. Show your child how to grasp a bar of soap and using hand-over-hand guidance, help your child to slowly peel shavings from the bar of soap. Encourage them to peel away from their body for safety.
This is important when teaching kids how to peel a potato or an apple, as well, so it’s great practice!
3. Peel long strips of soap and small shavings, mixing the colors of the different bars of soap on the wax paper. Managing the vegetable peeler and the soap is a great way to encourage bilateral hand coordination (the use of two hands together in a coordinated manner).
Children need bilateral hand coordination for functional skills like cutting with scissors, handwriting, tying shoes, and managing clothing fasteners. An activity like using a vegetable peeler on a soft bar of soap is a great way to work on using tow hands together effectively with a non-dominant assisting hand and a dominant hand with fluid and controlled motions.
4. Arrange the soap peelings on the wax paper and place the second piece of wax paper on top.
5. Carefully move the wax paper to an ironing board.
6. Place a dishtowel over the wax paper and using an iron heated to medium, slowly press down. The soap will slightly melt and flatten under the heat.
7. Check often to see if the wax paper is adhering. You can remove the dish towel and carefully heat the edges of the wax paper.
8. Cut the wax paper into rectangular book marks.
9. Punch a hole near the top of the book marks using the hole puncher.
10. Tie a piece of ribbon in the hole. This bookmark will smell great and would make a lovely gift!
*Note: This craft should be done under close supervision of an adult. Be careful with the use of a vegetable peeler with small children. For younger children, provide hand-over-hand assistance with the vegetable peeler. Adults may want to complete the peeling portion of this soap craft. Adults or responsible older children should manage the iron. As always, use judgement when it comes to completing this and any activity with your kids.
Using the vegetable peeler and an iron to make our soap shaving bookmark makes working on IADLs fun and engaging. Life skills tasks like cooking is an essential Instrumental Activity of Daily Living that occupational therapy professionals address.
Alternate activities:
- Vary the scents and colors of your bookmarks with various soaps.
- Add a personal message or quote to the bookmarks.
- Add flower petals or scraps of paper to the soap shavings before ironing.
- Arrange the soap shavings in a mosaic or mandala pattern.
Using a vegetable peeler to proactive the bilateral coordination and motor planning needed for peeling vegetables is a good way to grade down the activity because of the soft texture of the soap.
Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.
