Educational Foam Toys

There are countless ways foam can entertain and educate children. As a versatile material, it's an ideal choice when playtime is restricted to the home, indoors or in the garden, and a great help for parents and carers keeping little ones entertained.

Sensory foam toys

Thanks to its composition, foam offers a variety of textures for children to experience, which can be built into many craft activities. As eFoam's foam is non-toxic and made to the highest quality standards, shapes can be ordered cut to size in different densities – firm, soft and memory – as a sensory item for young children. Our guide to playpen and soft-play foam has more for sensory spaces.

Foam paint stamps and sponges

When the weather warms up, foam is perfect for educational art and craft projects outdoors. Using flat foam sheets, shapes can be drawn on and cut out to make paint sponges and stamps – print the shapes, trace around them on the foam, and they're ready for children's washable paint and easy to clean. Our guide to foam crafting stamps goes into more detail.

Sporting and game toys

Foam also makes great sporting toys. Relay race batons can be cut as rectangles from a high-density flat sheet and decorated, or ordered as cylinder shapes cut to size if you'd rather skip the craft step. With spare fabric, foam offcuts can stuff handheld or larger foam beanbags for catching and balancing games.

Foam board games and bowling

For mat-based games such as snakes and ladders or noughts and crosses, custom shapes can be cut and built from a flat, high-density polyethylene foam sheet – crosses can be one whole shape or built in 3D with adhesive spray. For a dice, rather than ordering a 3D shape, cut four or five equal squares from a 2-inch flat sheet and stack them with adhesive into a cube to decorate. A foam bowling alley and pins game builds coordination too: from one large flat sheet (around 1–1.5m square and 3 inches thick), two sets of different pins can be stencilled and cut out. Being foam, the pins are safe for younger children and safe indoors. For more crafts, see our guide to foam puppets.

If you have a toy or game idea in mind, please contact us – if you can imagine it, we can help create it.

Frequently asked questions

How can foam be used as an educational toy?

Foam offers a variety of textures for sensory play and can be cut to size in firm, soft and memory densities. It also makes paint stamps and sponges, sporting toys like relay batons and beanbags, mat-based board games, dice and bowling pins.

Is foam safe for children's toys?

Yes. eFoam's foam is non-toxic and made to the highest quality standards, and being soft it's safe for younger children and ideal for use indoors.

What foam games can you make?

Plenty – mat-based games like snakes and ladders or noughts and crosses, a stacked foam dice, themed bowling pins for a coordination game, relay batons, and beanbags for catching and balancing games.