Creative Sand Sculpting Ideas For Families Looking To Spend Quality Time At The Beach

There is still a solid month’s worth of weekends for the beach and even more than that if you have vacation days, so there’s still plenty of opportunity to spend quality time together with the kids making great memories that can last a lifetime.

Renaissance sand castle. Photo courtesy of Sand Masters.

A great way to spend some time together at the beach is building sand sculptures. Parents can help kids build some really cool things like castles, fancy starfish, butterflies, flowers, turtles, or anything else they can imagine.

Right now on television, there are cool shows like Sand Masters making amazing things like menageries of animal displays, 10 ft. tall grand castles, and other displays. I’m not talking about making any thing that extravagant, but with some basic knowledge, you can make some really cool creations and the kids can help.

Sand Masters and other sites on the web have some really easy to understand tips for making your creations. All you need are some basic tools and knowledge and you are all set. Sand Masters has some great advice for tools that can be modified from want you have at home.

For your top 10 basic tools and demonstrating how to use them by making a dolphin, Sand Masters recommends:

1. Bottomless buckets.
2. Shovels.
3. Square trowels (or anything with a straight side.)
4. Pool trowels (or anything with a straight side.)
5. Palette knives (or any other knives you have at home.)
6. Butter knives.
7. Popsicle sticks (optional).
8. Spoons.
9. Paint brushes (for brushing off extra sand and giving a polished finish.)
10. Straws (for blowing and creating finer details.)

Sand Masters also has a great tutorial about how to ‘Build A Sand Fort.”

There are also a lot of other places on the web that have similar great information that you can print out and take with you to the beach. A great site is Sand Fu that has an introductory section, which includes information about what’s the best kind of sand to use when building your masterpieces.

Sand Fu suggests looking for sand that is fine, clear of debris (like rocks, shells, etc.), and above the highest tide line, so your creation won’t be destroyed before it’s even finished.

Sand Fu also has great advice about different “compaction” techniques, which are basically how to stiffen the sand so that you can build on it. The three methods they recommend are:

• The Volcano: This method involves building a large rim around where you plan to build your sculpture, filling it with sand, flooding it with water, letting the water drain down, packing it down with your feet, and repeating the process again until you get to the desired height.

Volcano compaction method. Graphic courtesy of Sand Fu.

• The Casting Bucket (also suggested on Sand Master): The casting bucket (i.e., a 5 gallon plastic paint bucket with the bottom cut out) is the quickest way to make a well compacted block of sand with the least amount of effort, according to Sand Fu. For this process, the bucket needs to be flipped upside down on the beach and filled with 4-inch layers of sand. The water is poured into the bucket until the sand layer is slightly submerged and then you reach in and pack the sand down with your hand. Repeat the process. Stop when you are about two inches from the top. Then, gently tap around the bucket to loosen the sand from the bucket and pull the bucket straight up. Now it’s time to carve.

Casting bucket compaction method. Graphic courtesy of Sand Fu.

• Hand Packing: This can be used to create a complete sculpture, but is usually used to add a smaller piece to a larger sculpture. One of the best ways to do a ‘hand pack’ is to half fill a bucket with water and then add sand until the bucket is just about full. Reach into the bucket with both hands and grab a lump of saturated sand and quickly place it where you want it. Then, pack the sand by rapidly patting the top of it flat until it resembles a sandy hamburger. Repeat the process, layer-upon-layer, until you reach the desired height.

For picking what you want to sculpt, Sand Fu suggests, “It might be a good idea to bring pictures of a castle, an animal, or anything else you might have an interest in and try and duplicate it.”

A great website for how to make sand castle, once you have the compacting down, is Chiff, which even has step- by-step picture graphics on how to do it, as well as a video.

Building a simple sand castle step-by-step. Graphic courtesy of Chiff.com.

To get more inspiration by seeing other amazing sand sculpture creations also take a look at this site on HubPages.  

No matter what you do, always allow the kids to help using their own buckets and shovels to bring the sand. Also allow them to help carve of the sculptures using either their own play tools, or your tools, like the butter knives, spoons, and spatulas.

Reader comments and input are always welcomed!