Sticky Wall Seashore {July BabbaBox Activities & Giveaway}- CLOSED

Congrats to our giveaway winner- Elizabeth Middleton! I am emailing you right now!

This post is sponsored by BabbaCo by Jessica Kim!

We are very excited to be teaming up with BabbaCo to share a monthly summer series with you where we will feature book-related crafts and activities created exclusively to go along with the children's book included in each BabbaBox. You can read our June post here.

The July BabbaBox (that recently arrived on our doorstep) includes the children's book Sneakers the Seaside Cat by Margaret Wise Brown along with several seashore themed activities. Here is a sneak peak of of my kids doing a few of the projects that were included in this month's BabbaBox.

The box contained a shell sorting activity, super cool sea turtle race game for us to make and play, a seashell picture frame craft, a picture book, a message in a bottle activity to send in the mail (my son's absolute favorite), and some seashore coloring activities.

Sneakers the Seaside Cat by Margaret Wise Brown is a book about a sweet black-and-white cat who takes a trip to the seashore. The story describes his adventures as he explores the seashore. He discovers several animals and shells and enjoys the sensory experience of his trip to the ocean. We loved the pictures in this book and my daughter loved the kitty cat. She said, "meow!" the entire time we were reading.

After reading this book a few times, we were inspired to create our own sticky wall seashore and make a seashore snack!

My kids have been loving rocks, shells, and stickiness lately, so I knew it was time to get some contact paper up on the walls and start creating!! We were originally introduced to the concept of sticky walls by our friend Allie at No Time for Flashcards and have been loving them ever since!

Materials Needed for Sticky Wall Seashore:

• contact paper
• scissors
• colored paper
• shells
• rocks
• tape
• crayons
• flat toothpicks
• BabbaBox shell coloring pages (optional)

Directions for creating your own Sticky Wall Seashore:

The main tip I will give you for this project is to let go of what you think the end product should look like and embrace the vision your child has! Let them create and just have fun doing it with them! My seashore project would've looked very different from this one... but I think my son's project is BEAUTIFUL and he is so proud of it!

Create your ocean and seashore...

1. Stick contact paper on your wall with the sticky side out and tape it in place using painters tape.
2. Snip or rip colored paper and start creating your ocean and sand by sticking the paper onto your sticky wall.

Create some sticky fishes...

1. Prep ahead a fish outline from colored paper and cut out the center
2. Press paper fish onto contact paper
3. Have your child rip and snip paper or tissue paper and stick it onto the center of the fish
4. Cut around the fish (leaving a little sticky edge) and press it onto your stick wall

Create some sea anemone...

1. Take rectangle strips of paper and tape them into small rolls.
2. Snip the edges of of the rolls.
3. Fluff out the little strips to make them seem like their tentacles are waving/moving.

Create some sea urchins...

1. Stick paper circles onto contact paper.
2. Attach flat toothpicks to the contact paper around the edges of the circles.
3. Place a piece of contact paper over the toothpicks/paper to secure everything into place.
4. Trim around the edges of the toothpicks and then add the urchin to your sticky wall!

Create a rocky seashore...

1. Hunt for rocks and gather shells from around your house (several shells came in our BabbaBox that were perfect to use). Stick them on the sticky wall. If they are too heavy, use some tape. My son loved going on a rock hunt outside to find little pebbles for us to use.
2. Color pictures of other sea shells, cut them out, and stick them on the wall.

As you can see, this activity kept us busy and creating for quite awhile! The thing I love about sticky wall collages is that they don't have to be done all at one time. They can be done over the course of a day... or two or three. The collage can be an ongoing creative project and is perfect for siblings to work on together. You can put them anywhere- on a screen glass door, a wall, an easel, or even on a kitchen cupboard.

After all of our hard work, we were ready for a seashore snack! There was a sailboat in the background of most of the illustrations in the book. Since my kids are picky eaters, I always love making healthy food a little more fun. These sailboats snacks are a simple way to do that.

Materials Needed for Seashore Snack:

• cheese cubes
• toothpicks with little flag triangles taped on them
• apple slices

Do you have any other favorite seashore crafts, activities, or crafts?

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BabbaBox Giveaway!

Have you signed up for a monthly BabbaBox subscription yet? If not, today is your lucky day! BabbaCo is GIVING AWAY a 3-month BabbaBox membership to one of our Toddler Approved readers!

Check out this post to find out what you get in each BabbaBox and why we are so excited about it.

Here's how you enter the giveaway:

Simply add a comment stating that you did each of the following:

(Please include your email address with each entry)

1. Mandatory Entry: Leave a comment with your email address below.

** Please remember to leave your email address with your entry. That is mandatory to enter into the giveaway.

2. Additional Optional Entries:
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- Be the first or last one to enter and get an EXTRA entry!!
- Share one link to a favorite seashore themed craft or activity!

*** Make sure to leave a comment for each additional optional entry so that we can make sure to count it. You get one point for each entry. If you write everything in one comment, then it will only count as one entry.

Entry Guidelines:

- This giveaway is open for entry from Tuesday, July 30th to Tuesday, August 7th at 11:59pm (PST).

- The random entry will be drawn on August 8th and announced on this post. I will notify the winner via email.

- The winner will need to reply to me within 72 hours of this announcement/email. If there is no response, a new winner will be drawn.

- See our Official Giveaway Rules for complete guidelines.

Even if you don't win the giveaway, you can still get 20% off your membership order by entering this special code for Toddler Approved readers: TA20OFF 

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Disclosure: This is a sponsored post on behalf of BabbaCo. BabbaCo will be compensating me for my monthly book-related craft and activity posts. All posts reflect my personal opinion and endorsement and are not swayed by compensation and/or free products. Please note that this post reflects my opinion and preferences and you might not share that same opinion.