Pape Plate Snail Craft for Kids

By Guest Author

Spring and summer bring lots of sunshine, blooming plants, and lots of little critters. Gardeners won’t think too highly of snails in the coming months, but many kids find them fun and fascinating from their slimy body to their hard shell. We’re turning their fascination into a fun snail craft!

Supplies for Snail Craft:

• Small dessert sized paper plates (regular sized could also be used)
• Paint
• Puffy paint
• Colored scrapbook or card stock paper
• Pipe cleaner
• Googly eye
• Glue
• Scissors

Directions for Snail Craft:

1. Paint paper plate and allow to dry.

2. Cut body from paper. See image below for an example.

3. Glue body to the back of the paper plate so that the head sticks out.

4. Cut a small piece of pipe cleaner, fold in half and glue the back of the head for tentacles. Typically you find the eyes on the tentacles of a snail, but for this project we glued one eye to the head.

5. Using puffy paint make a swirl on the snail’s shell and allow to dry. If you don’t have puffy paint, your child could use a marker and draw the swirl.

Extend the Activity:

• Discuss the textures of a snail. You could offer something slimy and something hard like a shell that allows kids to experience the textures of a snail.
• Make a snail snack with celery and peanut butter as the body and an apple slice as the shell. Add raisins for the eyes and pretzel sticks for the tentacles.
• Read books about snails

Written by About a Mom contributor, Kim. Kim, the mama behind The Resourceful Mama, is a medical social worker turned stay at home mom to three. She enjoys sharing simple crafts and activities, parenting and homemaking tips, and a lot of holiday fun.