Have you ever found sea glass on the beach? Have you thought about how it got there? Where did it come from? How old is it? There are so many mysteries hiding in that small piece of glass. Today we are sharing a beautiful children’s book about sea glass and pairing it with some fun sea glass activities for kids!

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Sea Glass Summer was written by Michelle Houts and illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline. This beautiful book follows a young boy named Thomas as he visits his grandmother at her seaside cottage and explores the beach with a magnifying glass from his grandfather. When his grandmother shows him a piece of sea glass, he is mesmerized and dreams of the possible stories behind it.

The story has a beautiful twist ending that brings generations together and shows how we are all connected. The illustrations are beautiful and incredibly detailed, showing the beauty of the beach and the mysteries to be found there.

Visit the beach

If you have the opportunity to visit the beach, take a day trip and search for sea glass or other fun treasures. Take inspiration from the book and create your own stories to go along with the treasures you find. You could also use your found treasures to create a fun piece of artwork together to commemorate your beach visit. Check out this post about creating artwork out of natural materials for more inspiration!

Sea Glass Sensory Bin

If you can’t get to the beach, bring the beach to you! Fill a sensory bin or small sandbox with sand and add pieces of polished sea glass for kids to find. You can find these at your local craft store or here on Amazon. We used polished glass beads in our sand box, and my daughter had a lot of fun searching for them. After she found them all, we started playing different sorting and counting games. I asked her to collect 5 blue ones and 5 green ones, or collect 10 of any combination. You could also create your own stories about the pieces of glass that you have found. We are doing a lot of storytelling lately, so she had a lot of fun with this.

Sea Glass Treat

Check out this fun tutorial from the blog The Homespun Hydrangea to make your own beach glass hard candy! We love working together in the kitchen, so we had a great time making this yummy treat. We differed slightly from the recipe by using peppermint extract instead of fruit oils and it was delicious and refreshing! This would be a fun treat to enjoy while you read together, and making it together can create fun memories and stories just like the characters in the book have.

Sea Glass Vases

For those of us who don’t live near the beach, this craft is a fun way for you to get the beach glass look at home and also collect things around your home. Mix a few drops of blue or green food coloring into some Elmer’s glue and use it to paint the outside of a mason jar or recycled glass jar. You can then fill it with flowers that you collect from around your house or neighborhood. Since we love taking walks and she loves collecting flowers for me, this is a fun summery way to display them.

Do you enjoy searching for sea glass at the beach? What are your favorite sea glass activities for kids? Share in the comments below!

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