The flowers are starting to bloom on our apple trees and bugs are everywhere so it’s the perfect time to make a few not so slimy versions of the bugs we see outside. I had planned for her to just make one snail but when I gave her the pile of construction paper she asked to make a whole family so we did.
- Gather your materials. You will need some construction paper, coffee filters , markers, glue, double stick tape , googly eyes, some water and an eye dropper. If you want glitter (she REALLY wanted glitter ) grab some glitter glue. We love these little tubes of glitter craftprojectideas.com sent us.
- Start by coloring your coffee filters. While she colored we chatted about colors and the different marks she was making . Dots were her favorite.
- Add the water!
She started with the eye dropper but quickly asked if she could pour. If you are going to let your child pour you will want to have two small cups on hand so you can give them small amounts of water to pour and then refill.
- Let the filters dry and go play outside or in my daughter’s case raid your brother’s closet and get dressed in his clothes. If you need to speed up drying time use a hair dryer on low.
- Cut out the snail frames. Use a coffee filter as a guide for the center circle. Make sure it’s smaller than the coffee filter so you can tape it in.
- Using double stick tape tape the coffee filters on the back.
- Time to add eyes. I love the 3 eyed snail . I was shocked when she insisted on doing all the eyes. I was prepared to do most of them.
- Add glitter if you wish. One thing I can say about my little girl is she is determined and she was determined not to let me help after I showed her how to add the glitter. She eventually got it out ( this color was almost all used up… when they are full they are super easy to squeeze).
- While she did that I cut out easy antennas from the scrap paper and taped them on.
- A family of glittery snails !
- Add it to a window and see all the colors shine!
Books About Bugs !
Check out our 19 favorite books about bugs. These aren’t just some good bug books, they are some of our all time favorites!
kristina says
Seriously awesome Allie! Catie is going to be so excited when we do these tomorrow.
Amy @ Sunlit Pages says
We have been loving bugs around here ever since spring arrived. I recently wrote about a few bugs books that we’ve really liked: http://sunlitpages.blogspot.com/2013/04/kidpages-three-favorite-bug-books.html and http://sunlitpages.blogspot.com/2013/04/kidpages-three-more-favorite-bug-books.html
I love your snail craft and am planning on using it this Friday with my three-year-old son’s preschool group!
bibli says
I thought this craft was adorable! Since I planned to do it as a drop-in craft at my library, I need it to dry fairly quickly. Instead of water, I sprayed the filters with rubbing alcohol. The marker color diffused nicely and they dried in half the time.
Suzanne Allen says
I LOVED this idea! My first graders loved doing this. We ended up doing a whole unit on snails, and they wrote about what they learned to go with their snail sun catcher! We ended up using watercolors on the coffee filters which also worked really well! Thank you for posting such cute ideas! 🙂
Allison McDonald says
That is so rad. Thank you so much for letting me know.