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: Some fun ones are Are you a Snail? or The Snail Who Forgot the Mail.
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.
The craft idea is so cute and fun to make with my son and daughter. We like making crafts and you have fun ideas for us to do! Thanks for sharing.
This is just such a cute craft. I love how easy it is too. I don’t like attempting complicated crafts with the kids I babysit.
These are too cute and so easy! Great summer activity for kids.
Aww this is such a cute idea, so simple yet to so bright and colourful. x
This is a very cute idea. I’m pinning it so I can refer to it again as a summer project for my son. Thanks for sharing.
This would be so much fun to do with the grand kids – thanks!
This is genius! My daughter would enjoy doing this. We love doing crafts and have one that we will be working on tomorrow but might have her do this over the weekend.
What a fun idea. Love the bright colors, would make fun room decor… make a trail of snails!
Those are so good and easy to make. I love the swirly whirly design!
This will be a great craft to try over the summer with the kids. Trying to keep them learning and active all summer