Hello! Time for some great Summer Preschool Crafts! The Uk has been blessed with some beautiful weather over the Easter break. So like many, we headed down to our favourite beach on the South Coast! It is always a wonderful visit, as we go with friends that we don’t see so often. And it is wonderful to see the children play and have fun together… of course it is also an opportunity to collect stones and shells! And this time we also took some sand home!
There are many ways to be art and crafty with sand.. and we will be experimenting over the coming weeks (unless the bucket gets knocked over).
This is also going to be our April Picture in our Calendar Project – here is the original post!
First our book:
Sharing a Shell, by Julia Donaldson (US/ UK (affiliate links))
Julia Donaldson is one of the UK’s leading contemporary children’s authors. We love her books and she is well known for The Gruffalo and Stickman. They certainly are some our favourites. Here is a book we picked up at the Supermarket once and is probably a little less well known.. It is the story of a little crab in a rock pool off to find a home. He finds a shell and then makes friends with whom he shares the shell. Together they are a strong team and all is well. However they start getting bigger and the shell gets a little tight. They fall out and go their separate ways… only to find that living together is best and safest. They learn this lesson and come together again and live happily ever after. A story of “sharing” and of “friendship”, as well as recognising each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Written in the “classic” Julia Donaldson’s rhyme and with some lovely textured touchy feely bits (perfect to go with our tactile sand craft!).
The Craft
Our first craft with sand is with contact paper – I have seen many wonderful blogs using contact paper with the little ones – it is such a great craft for the under 2s as there is no “getting messy with glue” or “sticky shapes sticking to your fingers”. It is also fabulous for SAND!
So.. we have several “thank you cards” that we “owe”, so we decided to make some cards.
Materials: Foam for fish (but you can use coloured card or anything lying around), contact paper, sand, card, masking tape
Time: the craft itself is quick, but the “set time” (cutting fish, contact paper), takes longer. Give yourself a leisurely 45min – an hour
1) Cut out some “under the sea” creatures, we did lots of fish, some jelly fish and some starfish. Older children who can “assemble” a picture better, could add some seaweed and rocks and shells
2) Stick some contact paper, sticky side up, on the table with masking tape – the masking tape also makes for a “nice clean board”.
3) Stick your shapes (nice and hard) and then add your sand and spread it nicely
4) Remove all masking tape and stick on your final card. Add a board if you like (Red Ted insisted!)
Send to Friends and Family!
More great Summer Preschool Crafts here!
These look wonderful! What a brilliant idea!! 🙂
These are fantastic! My DD will definitely enjoy this.
Thanks Maggy!
I really like this idea & have jotted it down for our ocea/sea theme later on! I just know my girls would love creating art with sand! Thanks Maggy you always have such great crafting ideas!
Bernadette
Beautiful Art Maggy! I love underwater scene and arts!
Love how those turned out! I haven’t used sand with contact paper before!
They are so beautiful and original!
love this idea, maggy…and congrats on being socialmoms.com featured blog!
Thank you! Was rather chuffed! Lovely to be picked!
That looks fab. I’m going to be really dumb here..what’s contact paper??!
Ah no idea what is called in the UK (I borrowed the US term), but it is that sticky clear plastic, that you use to bind books and exercise books. WHSmith WILL have some!
What a terrific idea to use sand. The book looks pretty good too!
Looks like a cute book!
Love your creativity! I’ve nominated you for the Versatile Blogger Award. Check out my post at http://sleepyheaddesignsstudio.blogspot.com/2011/04/my-first-award.html
That’s a fun way to play with sand. Does it make a big mess?
I’d say yes – but you can “contain it” (I decided to let them play) and it is DEFINITELY not as bad as glitter mess!! Was v easy to clean up!
Go for it!
Ooh and Stacy, thank you for the award 🙂
What a fun idea. We did something similar once with a dollar store sand kit. It was fun, but I found we couldn’t keep it because the sand kept falling off. Did you put more contact paper over the top of your artwork? I think I will have to try this again. I bet it would work well with colored sugar too!
No, I just made sure that I left a border, so you could stick it onto the paper (that is where the masking tape comes into it). And that the kids “pressed down hard” (though they didn’t need to press much). The “boarder” helps secure any places if doesn’t stick well. But in principle – just one sheet of contact paper with sand from the beach!
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The sand art is really worthy of any Grandparent- or should be in an Art Gallery!
That’s a pretty Sand Art and it turned out so well. Thanks for sharing your idea.
Yet another fantastic idea!! Love that can be done even by littlest hands:)
Thanks for sharing!
We need to work with sand. The end product is wonderful.
Thanks for linking to Read.Explore.Learn.
loved your sand cards, I’m still thinking on beach craft but in the mean time I have added another nature craft 🙂
I am working on a project with contact paper right now! I love the idea of sand art and contact paper (especially for a preschooler!) Thanks for reminding me to link up! I sometimes get lost in the Linky World!
Thank you Melissa! And I know what it is like!!! Much appreciate your visit!
Maggy
Great craft. I would have never thought to use sand with the contact paper!
I just love these! They have such potential in class & then the children can do them at home! Many thanks for linking to the RC Maggy!
Thank you for all your lovely comments!! :-))))
Would make adorable invitations to a beach-themed party! Thanks as always for linking up at Feed Me Books Friday!
It looks beautiful Maggy! 🙂 Thanks for adding this to last week’s High paw. Love it!
The children will surely love this and the book looks interesting. This can be enjoyed by the children especially this summer. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
We enjoyed doing this one! Thanks for the idea. Our sand didn’t stick very but after we stuck it to the board it was even more fun because it moved behind the contact paper. Maybe I will try corn meal instead next time though so my toddler can do it without a sand snack 😉