Little Snail Craft Project

On Thursday we made these adorable little snail crafts.   These were inspired by a couple of pins that I found on Pinterest, but when I tried to link to them I just got a photo not a blog post.  I did tweak the original ideas a bit to combine a few that I liked and also to work with the materials I had on hand.  For the bodies, we used little wood pieces that I THINK came from some canvases I bought a long time ago for an art project at home.  Anyway, they seemed about the right size.  We also used pipe cleaners, pony beads and googly eyes.  You can see our materials below.

First, the littles chose a wooden piece and colored it with a marker.  Then they took a pipe cleaner that had been cut in half and threaded pony beads onto it.  Using their hands together to do this required great concentration on the part of the littles.  Threading and bead-stringing is a fantastic way to improve fine motor skills. 

The pipe cleaner was then twisted into a snail shell shape.  The shell and eye stalks had to be attached using hot glue which, of course, was done by an adult.  Small pieces of pipe cleaner were used as eye stalks and a googly eye was attached to the end of them.  Uber-cute!!  We are super crazy about snails!!

Mucus Trail

As you know, we are enamored with snails. So enamored, in fact, that we are doing snail art projects now in honor of our class snails.

Credit for this project goes entirely to Mrs. DeNier.  She has been wanting to do a project wherein the littles could create a mucus trail like our real snails make.  She came up with the amazingly awesome idea to make a playdough snail, dip it in glue, and glide it across a piece of paper, leaving behind a "mucus" trail.  The mucus trail is then sprinkled with glitter because, in fact, real mucus trails are a bit iridescent when they dry.  Not kidding. 

In addition to providing construction paper, playdough snail-making supplies, glue and glitter, we gave the littles the option of making a snail for their trail using circles we had punched from construction paper.  They then used markers to add details such as eye stalks and feet (the squishy part of the bottom of the snail that glides along is its foot for those of you who are not up on snail anatomy).   Some littles opted to add their playdough snails as part of their finished project, and this worked great too.

The photos below show a mucus trail project in process as well as some finished artwork.  The last photo shows that we hung our snail trail artwork on the wall above Speedy, Carlo and Ralph.  We're nice that way.  Sharing the snail love!!

Playdough Snails

I realize that this is not the best photo in the world, but I wanted to share a super-cute project we did this past week since we are completely enamored with SNAILS.  I found this idea HERE.  Basically you roll out a log of playdough, stick a pasta shell on the back for the shell, and use cloves for the eye stalks.  It could not be more simple.  Or more cute.  Seriously.

How Ralph Waldo Emerson (the snail) got his name

So, in yesterday's post, I told all about how we came to have a snail as our classroom pet.  Truly, snails are the perfect pet.  They are small, easy to care for, not loud, not stinky, fascinating to watch......the list goes on and on.  

Anyway, as I indicated last time, Speedy Jones Turbo, our classroom snail has some FRIENDS!!!  Yes, we now have 3 garden snails as pets in our classroom.  Prior to the two new additions, we had discussed the necessity of acquiring another snail, perhaps as a "back-up" snail in case Speedy (ahem) didn't make it.  The weekend after this discussion took place, Mrs. DeNier and one of the first grade teachers in my building, Mr. McKean, both scoured their yards for snails to bring to school, with no luck whatsoever.  I, on the other hand, did not look for snails in my yard AT ALL (even though I live on almost 2 acres and have plenty of room to search).  When I walked out to my garage that Monday morning to leave for work, I saw a snail on the outside of the garage, stuck to the wall.  I went inside to get a Dixie cup to transport it to school.   On my way inside, I saw ANOTHER snail on the sidewalk.  This was quite remarkable since I have lived in my current home for 11 years and cannot recall EVER seeing snails just hanging around. 

So, I drove to work that day with two little Dixie cups full of snail in the cup-holders of my van.  One of the snails crawled to the top of the cup during the drive and perched itself right on the rim of the cup, making me quite nervous about losing him in the van on the way to school.  Luckily, I was able to nudge him gently back into the cup and transport him safely into the snail habitat in our classroom.

Naturally, the littles were MAJORLY excited to come to school on Monday and find out that we had acquired two new snails.   We did not hurry to name the new snails for some reason.  However, we did find some snail coloring pages that I put out at the art center for coloring.  One afternoon, Miss Moritz decided to sit with the littles and color her own snail.  Being a precise and meticulous artist, she took her time and created a beautiful snail to hang on our small classroom refrigerator.  She decided to name her snail, Ralph, which she wrote at the bottom of her paper.  She then asked Mrs. DeNier what Ralph's middle name should be.  Mrs. DeNier randomly suggested "Waldo", thinking of "Where's Waldo?".  As they went to tape the snail picture on the refrigerator, they noticed that the brand name of the refrigerator (which was conveniently and serendipitously located to the RIGHT of the taped-up snail picture) was EMERSON.  It quickly dawned on them that this was a SIGN that one of our newest snails should be named, Ralph Waldo Emerson. 

News of Ralph and his name spread throughout the land school.  (Okay, that is a bit of an exaggeration.  I think just Mr.  McKean was told of Ralph during his lunchroom duty.)  Within the day, Mr. McKean came to me with a "Ralph Waldo Emerson" quote in honor of the newest snail.  I promised to include this quote in my blog post.  Fortunately, the quote is actually a perfect one to include in a post that relates to young children.  

"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

This quote is ideal for young children because it truly reflects their complete and utter lack of pretense.  They just are who they are.  They make no effort to disguise their thoughts and feelings.  For this reason, it is very refreshing to be around littles.  They demonstrate the ability to be true to oneself on a daily basis.  I love it.

Our other snail has been named Carlo Spiderman which is a combination of two names suggested by the littles.  I guess his last name is Snail.  We didn't get past Carlo Spiderman for some reason.  

 

Below on the top left you can see the snail picture that was the inspiration for Ralph Waldo Emerson's name.

Speedy Jones Turbo (& Friends)

Our school district has a "no fur or feathers" policy when it comes to classroom pets, or even visiting animals.  While I understand the rationale behind this policy, it does limit the options we have for bringing live animals into the classroom.  

Recently, our class took a field trip to a local forest.  While on a nature walk, our guide noticed a leaf on the ground that had a shiny line across it.  She stopped and pointed this out to the children, telling them that this meant a snail had left a trail on the leaf and that a snail must be nearby.  She challenged them to look carefully for the snail near the trail.  I admit, I was skeptical that we would find a snail.  However, Mrs. DeNier, one of my assistants, found a snail!!  The children were able to get a close look at the snail (although it was holed up in its shell the whole time).  We decided to bring the snail back to school with us and make it our classroom pet.  

A funny side-story is that I held the snail in my hand all the way back to school on the bus.  I have now earned the nickname "The Snail Whisperer" because the snail bravely came out of its shell in my hand and was absolutely fascinating to watch on the ride back to school.

Once back at school, the snail was placed in a temporary home until more suitable housing could be found.  Additionally, research was done as to how best to care for a snail pet.  It turns out that a container with a bit of soil, a shallow dish of water, and some bark or pinecones for shelter is pretty much all that is needed.  We also learned that garden snails can live 10 to 15 years in captivity.  So, the joke now is that the snail will be with me for the next decade or so. 

Of course a classroom pet needs a name.  On the way back to school, our bus driver suggested "Speedy".  Later, in a class discussion, the name "Turbo" was also suggested.  So........we initially decided the snail would be called, "Speedy Joe Turbo".  However, one of the littles kept saying, "Speedy JONES Turbo" which we liked better.  So, Speedy Jones Turbo it is.  

Below you can see the beautiful habitat we created for Speedy complete with a "foresty" backdrop (more about that in a future post) and a custom made name sign.  In the photo the brown blog you can see on the cucumber slice is Speedy.  

Miss Moritz, my other classroom assistant, has decided that I could moonlight as a snail photographer.  Perhaps this is because I spent about 20 minutes (or more) on a recent Saturday trying to take an amazing photograph of Speedy.  One of my best "shots" is shown below.  I have gotten even better since that one was taken though.  ;-)

If you are paying close attention, you will notice that the title of this post indicates that Speedy has "friends".  I have decided to make that the topic of a future post which will show up later this week.  Suffice it to say that we are a bit snail-crazy around here.  SNAILS ARE AWESOME!!!!!!!