Monday Made It: Soap & Seashells

Hi, Teaching Friends!

My Monday Made It project for this week has nothing to do with teaching, but it could easily be changed up to use in your classroom! It is super-quick and pretty much fail-proof!

Here was my inspiration. I spotted this at Cracker Barrel back in early spring, and my I-can-make-this-myself-so-why-should-I-buy-it antennae was instantly on alert! Of course, it took me until nearly July to get around to it.

I spent literally one dollar on this five-minute project. I bought the pump soap at the dollar store, peeled the labels off, and used my trusty GooGone to remove the sticky residue from the outside of the bottle.

By the way, the bubbles you see in the finished project are the result of my dropping the bottle during this part of the project. They're actually kind of pretty, but I assume with time they'll probably disappear.



The next step was to get a handful of clean small shells, either from your beach vacation or the hobby store (or back to the dollar store, I suppose!).

I thought about pouring out all of the soap before I put the shells in, but decided to go the simpler route. I poured off just a little bit of the soap and then just dropped the shells in a few at a time. They nearly all sunk straight down. A few are floating a bit ... air in them, I guess? ... but I think that's sort of pretty, too.

I love how this looks in our guest bathroom! I was originally thinking about adding a rub-on decal, but I'm happy with leaving it as-is.


How could you use this idea in your classroom?  Well, if you have an ocean theme, you're good to go. Otherwise, there are so many possibilities. Colorful mini-buttons, tiny erasers, or pony beads (caution: they might all float at the top ... but wouldn't that be pretty, too?), coins, ... I'd love to hear your great ideas for making this project your own!


Speaking of projects, remember to visit Monday Made It at Fourth Grade Frolics to find lots of inspiration for your summer days!

Happy Teaching!