Toddler Art - Shell and Twig sculpture

This is a great activity to do after a holiday.  We collected a lot of shells from the beaches in Kintyre, and this was a great way to display them.

First of all we spent some time cleaning the shells.  Then we laid them out in the sunshine to dry.

For the sculpture, I put all the shells on the table and the children explored them.  They built little towers... had a taste... waved them around... and just had a good look.

Afterwards I brought in various twigs from the garden, some string and a large plant pot.  I used big pebbles to wedge one of the twigs into an upright position.  Then I asked C where we should attach the other twigs, and showed him how to tie them on.

I showed him how to thread shells with holes on to string.

From then on we just put the shells all over the sculpture, some threaded on to string, others on the base and some just hanging on to the nobbly bits of the twigs.

The whole sculpture is displayed in pride of place on the coffee table in the conservatory.