Beach Project

We did a really fun beach project while we were in Alabama that I want to share. We made sand handprints! I got the idea from a Family Fun magazine, and you can see the full directions here.

I brought some dry plaster of paris with us. We made deep handprints in wet sand (the really wet, packed sand didn't work for us) and then decorated our handprints with small shells we collected on the beach. Make sure to put the shells face down and don't press them too firmly into the sand. We then mixed the plaster of paris with a little ocean water and poured it into our sand hand molds. We let the plaster dry, dug out our handprints, and brushed off the excess sand. We got really awesome hand prints (they looked even better than in the photos where they still have wet sand stuck to the shells)

Unfortunately, I didn't pack them well enough for the trip home, and our fingers all broke off. We'll try again next year. Or maybe just try again in the sandbox this summer.