Snails and Slugs - locomotion

To introduce children to snails and how they move.

This is one of the first STEAM storytime sessions that I ran. I thought it would be interesting to bring in some snails for the children to watch.  I love seeing snails come out of their shells and then it looks like their eye stalks grow.
I decided to have a snail race with them an look out 4 feisty looking snails.  I placed them in the middle of a set of enlarging circles.  Whichever snail got to the outermost circle edge won.  I was thinking I would have plenty of time and prepared to read another story.  However, I must have had a 'turbo' snail because within 30 seconds one of my snails was at the finish line. I had a few slow pokes too, who hadn't even bothered to come out of their shells!

The children had seen how the snails moved so I started to discuss their silvery trails. 

Preparation:

Have a black piece of paper that you have allowed snails to slide across to reveal their silvery trail.

Science Concepts:

Slugs and snails have soft bodies so how do they slide across the ground with out getting hurt. 
They snail trails.  Show children the black paper with snail trails. This is 'slime' that snail produce when they move.
What does the snail slime do?
It make is easier to slide across hard surfaces like rocks and concrete.
Find more information about how snails move here

Experiment:

Snail slime is a bit like egg white.  Show children how egg white makes sandpaper less rough.

Equipment: 

2 pieces of sandpaper, egg white.
Get children to feel the sand paper, how rough it is, how hard it is to slide your finger along
Put some egg white onto the other piece of paper and get children to slide finger along. 
Get them to notice how much easier it is to slide their finger along. 
That is how snail slime works for snails

Book suggestions:

Snail brings the mail – Russell Punter
Slug need a hug - Jeanne Willis
Turtle and snail are friends - Stephen Michael King
Snails : why do they make slime trails? - Jeannette Rowe (Smarty cats series)
Snail and the Whale – Julia Donaldson
Norman the slug with the funny shell - Sue Hendra

Craft suggestions:

Snail colouring page and making a mosaic on the snails shell
Coiled paper snails
Paper plate snail

Extra learning:

I found the children wanted to interact with the snails and I encouraged their curiosity. I notice they 'pretend' played Mummies and Daddies with the snails.
This made the snails create bubbles/froth.  We discovered is what they do when they feel threatened.
Lots of children took snails home with then in egg cartons that I supplied.  This wasn’t planned, but one child asked and it cascaded from there.