Cereal box Snails

It's not the first time snails have inspired us to create. A few years ago while staring into the depths of our kitchen cabinets, I came across a few rogue pasta shells. At that time, it became very clear what must be done. We needed to create snail puppets out of pasta. Those little Pasta Snails became pretty popular over the years! As time has meandered onward, I've wanted to create snail houses using various things including paper bags, cardboard and now this:

We settled on using cereal boxes because of one BIG pro. They are so much easier to cut than box cardboard. AND, due to the relative density of the cereal box, you have a pretty stable snail shell/house. Overall, we like to call that a win at the Brainy HQ. That being said, this is definitely a project for the scissor savvy kiddo. It requires a good deal of cutting and is, honestly, best done with a box cutter. Just keep safety in mind here when completing this project. :)

For the youngsters, I'd create the snails and allow them to customize with the contact and tissue paper. The younger kids will appreciate the quickness of creating (as their attention spans are often shorter) and will love playing with them in the garden! Add some googly eyes to your kiddo's fingers and let them go wild with free play. Read on for the full instructions!

Gather:

Cereal box

Scissors

Pencil

Contact paper

Tissue paper

Create:

1. Roughly draw a snail shell shape. There are many types of snail shells. Try doing a round shape for simplicity or go more complicated with a more triangular shape. Cut it out.

2. Use your pencil to trace out designs in the snail shell. Cut them out using scissors or box cutter (again, use safety measures here.) Add a place for your thumb. It should be roughly an oval.

2. Cut a piece of contact paper the size of your snail plus an little margin.

3. Cut or tear pieces of tissue paper and add it to your contact paper. Leave a small amount of the contact paper without tissue paper around the edge, to allow it to stick to the snail.

4. Place the snail on the contact paper and press firmly. Now add another piece of contact paper to the opposite side. Press firmly around each area of the snail. Cut to remove excess contact paper.