Find seashells for projects at the beach, craft store or gift shop.
Seashells come in a variety of shapes and sizes that kids can incorporate into projects. If kids have the opportunity to spend a day at the beach, they can collect shells washed ashore by the ocean and bring them home for their collections or crafts. Kids can learn clean their shells and display them for family, friends or classmates. They can also use seashells for science or school projects or for decoration.
Cleaning Shells
Kids can learn clean their own freshly found seashells with the help of an adult supervisor, according to "Kids Collect: Amazing Collections for Fun, Crafts, and Science Fair Projects" by Dan Hubley and Mary Hubley. Use a dull kitchen knife to scrape any remaining tissue on or in the shells. Put on rubber gloves and goggles and place the shells in a bucket filled with a half-bleach, half-water solution.Let the shells remain in the solution for two or tree days; then rinse in cold water. Dry the shells and scrape off any remaining barnacles with the dull kitchen knife. Rub baby oil on the shells to make them shine.
Displaying Shells
In "Seashells, Crabs and Seastars," author Christiane Kump Tibbitts says to sort through your seashells and identify them for your own display. Place a cotton ball in each cup of an empty egg carton and place a seashell onto each cotton ball. Write the name of each seashell on a slip of paper and glue the paper to the front of the cotton ball holding the seashell. Instead of an egg carton, use a shoe box with a lid.
Crafts
Make seashell crafts by gluing seashells onto different objects, such as jar lids, picture frames, boxes or lamps, say the Hubleys. The surface of each object must be clean and dry before gluing shells to it. Another idea is to string shells with holes in them onto thread to form a necklace, using a needle and heavy thread.
Shell Fossils
In "Nature in a Nutshell for Kids: Over 100 Activities You Can Do in 10 Minutes or Less," author Jean Potter describes how kids can create their own seashell fossil imprints. Fill a cake pan with sand and moisten by adding tap water. The sand should be wet enough to leave an impression when you press your finger into it. Press a seashell into the wet sand to form an impression and remove the shell. In a plastic bowl, mix a package of plaster craft mold according to the directions on the package. You can find plaster mold at craft stores. Pour the plaster into the impression. Let the plaster impression dry for two or three minutes. Remove the mold from the plaster to study the imprint of a shell fossil left in the cake pan. This experiment shows kids how fossil imprints form. Kids can paint the plaster shells they removed from the pan.
