I just love The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson. It’s such a sweet story about adventure and how even the smallest creature can accomplish big things. It’s one one of our favorite books! So for an activity to go along with this book, we decided to make our own snail trails, just like the snail in the story. This activity is simple and hands-on. Win-win!
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We were fascinated by was how the snail in the book leaves a silvery trail behind when it moves. We did a google image search and found some funny trails snails left. We also observed this real life. On several different mornings this summer, we would go outside to see shiny trails on things we left out the night before. Once we left out a large sunflower (we took it apart for an activity the day before) and their were slug/snail trails all over it! They must love sun flowers.
Materials:
-White or clear school glue
-Dark paper. We used black and a darker blue.
-Optional: Sugar, salt, or white glitter to sprinkle on at the end for a little bit of sparkle. You could also stir a little bit of silver or white metallic paint into the glue.
How to Make Snail Trails:
Related: Make a Snail Finger Puppet for This Activity
1. Make a Snail! We made simple snail finger puppet for this activity. I like these pipe-cleaner snails because the absorb a lot of glue, which makes them leave a lot of their “snail slime” behind. **Note: The original snails we made have eyes at the tips of their tentacles (like many land snails), if you would like your snail to look more like the one in The Snail and the Whale, attach the eyes at the base of the tentacles instead. See the orange snail above for an example.
2. Dip the snail into the glue.
3. Push the snail down and forward onto the paper to make the snail trails.
5. Optional: After the glue snail trails are finished, you can sprinkle white or sliver glitter, salt, or sugar on the glue to make is sparkle a little bit. It looks great either way.
4. When finished, you can either glue your snail onto the paper to include in the artwork, or wash it and continue using it as a finger puppet 🙂
Have fun with your Snail Trail Art!
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