Art And Craft On The Beach

On Thursday, in very blustery conditions, I held an 'art and craft on the beach' afternoon for our Home Ed group.

After a picnic lunch we made Sandy Hands or Feet, which were fun, and fairly sucessful. To make them you simply make a deepish hand print in some damp sand, pour in Plaster of Paris and decorate with little shells and pebbles. It sets in about half an hour and then you can dig out your 'sandy hand'!! For the very little ones we made sandy feet as their tiny fingers didn't make a deep enough sand shape to pour the plaster into and they worked just as well. The important things to remember are to 1) Guard your print while it's drying to prevent any one from stepping on it, and 2) Work fast because Plaster of Paris dries super fast on a windy beach!!

Here is Hannah with her finished Hand. Once the Plaster was all used up we collected some interesting shaped pebbles and used acrylic paints (thank you Sally and Debbie for bringing those) to decorate them. One of the older girls used a Sharpie pen to turn the pebbles into the most amazing animal shapes, and the younger ones all had fun splashing paints around and making beautiful multi coloured pebbles. Hannah painted a bumble bee, and I helped her turn a stone with a hole in it into a rabbit burrow on a grassy hill!! They now have pride of place on our season table.

The painting aftermath!!

Hannah's sandy hand and painted pebbles drying in the sun.

Of course there was also lots of running, playing, shell collecting, paddling, and laughing and we all had a really good afternoon.