A Shell Memory Game

Can you tell that I love making/playing memory games? The idea for this game came from The Write Start. When I saw her post, I knew we would definitely make this game. Its so pretty and fun! If you haven't checked out The Write Start yet, you need to!

First we washed and dried the shells. Then we put the stickers on the shells. I looked several places before finally finding the same exact stickers that were used on the inspiration post (at Target). I was pretty excited especially since all of the other sea life stickers that I'd found were flashy and tacky :) O helped stick a few of the stickers on the shells, but she was a little rough and I was afraid she would tear them.
Since she's not quite ready for a full-fledged memory game, we did a matching game instead. I put a set of shells in each basket, and she chose one from the 1st basket and then found its match in the 2nd basket. She REALLY enjoyed this!Here she is with all of her matches!

A Sea Shell Necklace

While we were at the beach we collected shells with holes in them so we could make sea shell necklaces! We originally planned to use dental floss for the necklaces, but I didn't like the idea of O having dental floss around her neck, and it would have been very difficult for her to string the shells onto the floss. Then, I realized that pipe cleaners would be perfect. It was easy for O to put the shells on the pipe cleaners, and I didn't have to worry about the necklace being a strangulation hazard :)

O was very proud of her necklace!

A Sea Shell Sculpture

We were so busy playing in the sand and water at the beach that we didn't have time for beach crafts. However, we brought shells home so we could craft at home :)

To make a sea shell sculpture, we mixed up plaster of paris.


Then we poured the plaster of paris into a large shell. O put smaller shells into the plaster to make her sculpture. This was a simple and fun activity!

Shell & Stickers Memory Game

I made this shell and stickers memory game for O(5) about 2 years ago, and I take it to the beach with us every year.

I tried to teach E(1) the ins and outs of memory, but she's not quite ready for that :) However, she had fun matching the stickers.

To make the game, I gathered (from around my house) a bunch of shells that looked similar (O's grandmother brought them to her from the Bahamas), and I bought 2 packs of beach/sea life stickers. I put stickers on each shell to make about 10 matching pairs. Simple and fun!