Snail made of chestnut and clay on a leaf

Snail made of chestnut and clay

Hello everyone! Today we have a cool autumn craft made of natural materials – a snail made of chestnuts and clay. This activity can be done with children of all ages in preschool and elementary school. It’s a very simple and easy task, but the end result is stunningly beautiful. Plus, chestnuts are one of the most favorite materials for children’s creativity. They are so tactile and tempting. In the past, we have made mushrooms out of chestnuts and cute little owls.

Prepare the following materials for the lesson:

  • Chestnuts.
  • Playdough.
  • Autumn leaves.
crafts from chestnuts

Take a small piece of playdough of any color and roll it into a sausage shape. Sharpen one end and lightly flatten it. As you can see, we made it from what we had on hand, like in that saying “necessity is the mother of invention”. It’s a colorful creation of our imagination!

plasticine crafts

Bend the playdough base into an arch shape. Place a chestnut in the center and press it down a bit so it stays in place well.

Snail made of chestnut and clay

Form thin horns on your head.

Chestnut Snail Craft

Attach some little eyes to the tips of the horns. We had plastic toy eyes, so we used those. But you could also make small black clay balls with white dots for the pupils.

Chestnut Snail Craft

Now it’s the little mouth’s turn. The snail made of chestnut and clay is smiling so cutely.

Chestnut Snail Craft

And from a thin plasticine cord, we will twist a spiral. We will attach it to the chestnut shell of a snail.

Chestnut Snail Craft

Here’s what a mollusk looks like from the back. The shell looks completely natural, with twists and natural irregularities.

Chestnut Snail Craft

Snail made of chestnut and clay

Can you find me an autumn leaf? Even though it’s already October, it’s still hard to find yellow leaves where we live. However, I managed to find a poplar leaf. Let’s put a snail on it.

Chestnut Snail Craft

Wow, she’s so cool! And so cute too, just adorable! Did you know that snails can carry a load that’s 10 times heavier than their own weight? That’s how strong they are. But it’s no wonder they have a reputation for being some of the slowest creatures around. They only crawl about 7 centimeters per minute.

Chestnut Snail Craft

By the way, have you seen our unbelievably realistic paper caterpillars on leaves? They’re super cool, you should definitely check out that post and make them.

Create and grow with us. See you soon!

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