Featured, Kids

Make Your Own Terrarium: A Fun Weekend Project With Kids

11 Comments 11 May 2012

The kids have been asking for a pet. Because we’re not ready to go the dog route, we told them we can adopt two of the giant garden snails that we’ve seen hanging around in the front yard. Don’t judge me. They love those snails and were so excited to adopt them that I almost felt guilty that it wasn’t a dog. Almost.

Of course, any good adopted snail needs a comfortable place to rest his shell. So, I decided that we would build the snails a terrarium. The kids thought it was cool too – especially once they figured out how to pronounce terrarium. Say that one 5 times fast.

After school last week we headed to Walmart to drop off some prescriptions, and while we waited for them to be filled we cruised around and collected the items that we needed to make our own terrarium.

Everything you see here was purchased at Walmart. Here is the rundown of what we used:

Grand total for our terrarium – $21

We started by lining the bottom of the jar with some rocks to ventilate the soil and allow for some room for water to collect at the bottom, if necessary (I have been known to overwater my plants). Once the bottom of the jar was completely covered with a layer of stones, we moved on to the soil.

To make it easier on the kids, I dumped some of the soil into a glass bowl and used a measuring cup for them to dump the soil on top of the rocks. We ended up using about 6 cups of soil.

This is about what it should look like after you’ve added the soil – you want to leave lots of room at the top for the plants!

I chose to use succulents because they have small root systems and they don’t need a ton of water. It’s good for someone like me who either overwaters her plants, or totally forgets to water them for 2 straight weeks. For this project, I had purchased two small pots with a variety of succulents mixed together. At this point, we covered the table with paper bags and separated out the different plants from the pot. As I already mentioned, I purchased two of these, but we only ended up needing one. The other one has found a permanent home in my kitchen.

I took the plants that I separated out and placed them in the bowl with the remaining soil while we figured out a plan to replant them.

Once we had decided on our layout, we had the kids dig a shallow hole with their hands, then place the plants in their respective places. Then we just made sure each plant was surrounded by enough soil and everyone was happy with the placement before moving on.

At this point, the plants are in and all that is left to do is decorate! We chose a few of our favorite rocks from the bag to serve as decoration, but also to give the inside of the terrarium some character. Each of the kids chose a few of their favorite rocks and got to place them wherever their little hearts desired.

Ta-da! And this, my friends, is how you make a terrarium with your kids! Easy peasy lemon squeezy! I was really pleased with the result.

The kids loved it too! This was a really quick project by the way – it took 20 minutes tops from start to finish – and probably even less if you’re not taking photos with every step!

And last, but not least, meet our snails – Teach and QT (cutie). They eat tons of lettuce and apple slices and I’m pretty sure they think that they now live in snail heaven. The kids are completely fascinated by them.

We had so much fun making this terrarium with the kids, and a week later it still seems to hold just as much appeal as it did the first day. I’ve been watering the plants every other day, but after the first two weeks I plan to back it off to just twice a week. Obviously I can’t use the lid that came with the jar, so we ordered some mosquito netting to put over the mouth of the jar that keeps the snails in but still allows everyone to breathe.

What do you think – would you make a DIY terrarium?

Disclosure: This was a sponsored post by Walmart as a part of my role in the Walmart Moms. All opinions, and ideas are 100% my own.

Your Comments

11 Comments so far

  1. rachael says:

    Thanks for this idea we made one simaler

  2. Shell Fruscione says:

    What a fun project!

  3. Alison says:

    What an awesome idea! The snails shells are gorgeous.

    • Erika says:

      Thanks Alison! I moved from Louisiana and couldn\’t believe how HUGE the snails in California are! Sounds silly but it\’s true. :) I\’m just as fascinated as the kids!

  4. Kim L says:

    What a cute terrarium. This would be a good project to do with my son. Thanks for sharing.

    • Erika says:

      Thanks for stopping by, Kim! Yes! This would be a great project to do with your son – a great way to get kids excited about science!

  5. Ann says:

    a smart way spending your time with the kids, and teaching them a lot of stuff too, both an enjoyable and educational day.

  6. sweetnana says:

    Great Idea. I am impressed!


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