Children’s Corner
Davis Clark
The summer is sure to send many of us to the beach to soak up the sun and cool off. While you’re there, you may stumble across some shells. Collecting shells is a fun and time-honoured activity, and a great way for kids to explore their environment. If they hold on to the shells they collect, there are many cool things they can do with them, while also getting quality time making arts and crafts.
Sea spelling
You can use rocks, shells, and seaweed to spell your name in a creative way! First, find a sheet of paper (preferably something heavy) and glue it onto a picture frame background. Next, take all of your shells and rocks you collected at the beach and try to spell your name! Get creative and move them around until you like it, then glue it all into place. When you’re done, you’ll have a cool nametag that you can put anywhere, like your wall or your bedroom door.
Rainbow rigging
If you want to add some happy colour to your walls, you can make a rainbow out of shells. First cut out a rainbow shape from a piece of cardboard. Then, take all your shells and divide them into different piles, and decide on a colour to paint all the shells in each pile.
Once you have piles of shells that are all painted different colours and have dried, lightly draw arches on the cardboard that correspond to the different colours of shells. Glue the shells to the matching coloured arches. Once that’s done, you’ll have a rainbow made of seashells in four different colours!
Fossil forming
For an ancient feel, roll three medium size balls of clay into somewhat thick slabs, and cut circles out of them using cookie cutters. Press one of your favourite shells into the surface of the clay circle and remove it after a few seconds. You can poke a hole in the top, and once it dries put a piece of string through it to wear it as a necklace! Otherwise, put your new fossil somewhere as a reminder of your expedition.
Mandala making
If you like patterns, you can place a shell in the centre of a circular piece of cardboard or wood. This will be your centrepiece, so choose your favourite shell. Working out from the centre, making some kind of repeating circular design – you could do rings of different-coloured shells, or shells of different shapes and sizes. Get creative, and no matter what your mandala will be unique!
There are a lot of great ways to use what you’ve found during your adventures on the beach, all while exercising creativity. So go and see what you can make!
