How finding a snail outdoors in nature offers an opportunity to build vocabulary, develop listening skills, and sparks conversations that underpin the foundations of children’s Oracy.
Often, we don’t think of snails as anything other than every day and ordinary to see. However, if you think back to your own childhood of meeting these slimy creatures what memories come to mind? For me, I think back to finding many stuck to the pots in my parent’s garden and the curious moments of coming across an empty shell, left behind after a bird found one to eat.
Every day and common place yes but if we step back into looking at these minibeasts through the eyes of a child, it can be a moment of curiosity. Developing a child’s connection with the natural world, in my experience is when these spontaneous encounters occur. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to stop, slow down and spend time simply observing and talking about what they can see.
During a session with preschool children at a local nursery, I set up a simple tray with leaves and added snails from the garden. To get an even closer look I showed the children how to use a magnifying glass, and we talked about how things change when you look through. “It’s bigger!” Shouted one child with delight.
Initially the snails were unsure about their audience so stayed firmly in their shells. This was a moment we started to talk about the shell, noticing the colour and spiral pattern. The children ‘drew’ a spiral “Round and round” with their fingers in the air and the other children followed this too.
Reading an information book with interesting facts about snails sparked further conversation. We read about how when a snail is fully grown into an adult, it usually has 5 swirls. We observed the snails in the tray even more closely to count the number of swirls and compare the different sizes of the shells. As the snails began to relax and started to appear out from under their shell we noticed their trails along the leaves. The children talked about what they could see “It’s slimy, shiny, silver.”
“Snails are slow. They’ve got no legs.”
We not long noticed however that some snails were actually quite speedy considering their size! “This one is escaping up the top!” “I think it’s hungry and is looking for more food.” Some of the children found some nearby dandelion leaves and placed them in the tray for the snails to eat.
Hands-on Safety:
These points are suggestions based on my own practice. It is important to use common sense and your own professional judgement when handling snails. Before handling a snail, ensure you have carried out your own risk assessment, especially regarding hand hygiene. In my sessions, children are given clear instructions on how to be kind:
- Use gentle hands
- Hold out the palm of your hand and sit down
- Wash your hands thoroughly with soap afterwards
The Learning Taking Place
A very simple set up of snails in a tray and an information book about snails, this provided a great opportunity for lots of discussion, questioning and introduced new vocabulary to the children for their communication and language development. Lots of the words used related to mathematical language, we compared size and length. The children were active learners, remaining at this activity for extended periods of time throughout the morning outdoor play session.
The children gained understanding about taking care of animals and when handled, showed care and ‘gentle hands’.
Signs of Snail Trails
Exploring the garden space or even on a walk in your local park/green space go at a snail’s pace and look for ‘signs of snails.’
‘Clues’ you may find:
Silvery slime trails on leaves and stones
If you find an empty shell, this is a wonderful moment to
“I wonder where this snail has gone?”
Look under the leaves of plants and areas such as terracotta plant pots.
Aliteration – “sss- slimy, sss - snail, sss- silver, sss-swirl” – go on a nature walk and find other things that begin with ‘s’ perhaps you will find a sss-slug!
Teaching and Learning Outdoors
Following the Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Guidance, England, 2025 these three areas of development are recognised as good practice:
Playing and Exploring
“Children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’.”
Active Learning
“Children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties and enjoy achievements.”
Creating and Thinking Critically
“Children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things.”
During the Snails Trails exploration area set up, I included clipboards with pencils and paper as some children were keen to draw their snail observations. For some children I modelled this and added labels to name the parts of the snail. This detail of knowledge about parts of a snail such as their tentacles is not necessary of course however the key here is that this was something highly motivating for the children. The snail trail activity was set up following observing the children’s fascination in the outdoor space in finding minibeasts.
This became an opportunity to introduce children to information books and showing children the features of books such as labels on a diagram are helpful as they told us more facts about snails. If I had attempted this set up for something the children had absolutely no interest in, the engagement would have been much lower.
Literacy Ideas for Follow up Activities:
Reading about Snails
Find out more Facts
Research using information books
High quality picture books
There are so many wonderful
Writing about Snails
If your children are fascinated by snails, create a class fact book using the children’s own observational drawings and write labels. For some children this may still be emergent writing so write word for word next to the marks the meaning that the child has given it.
Pre-writing skills – draw a swirl making large movements such as using chunky chalk on the ground or use fingers or sticks to make swirls in sand or soil.
Model writing – capture the children’s voices during the discussion about snails and model writing this in small speech bubbles alongside photographs of the children. This can go on a display board or be in a book for the children to look at.
If you had trouble seeing the snails – go to…
Connecting with nature
Invite more snails (and other minibeasts!) into your outdoor space
If you have a green space with grass and plants, the chances will be high that you already have snails in your garden.
If however, you find yourself in a more urban outdoor space with limited natural areas, a quick and easy way to invite more nature in is have seasonal plants in pots or raised beds. You can grow from seed with the children or buy small plants from your local garden centre. We also know that snails also like to eat old, rotting leaves so have an ‘wild’ unkept area designated area for minibeasts.
Let nature spark language and literacy through play
Gentle hands – one child crushed the shell
Keep it simple - Let nature spark language and literacy through play!
If you found this blog post helpful – sign up to my email newsletter here for a free PDF nature-based outdoor play checklist to use in your nursery or preschool’s outdoor learning environment. You will also receive weekly tips about ways to further support Language and Literacy through outdoor play.