Kids love building sandcastles at the beach. There are so many different ideas that you can use to make your sandcastle bigger and better each time. There are lots of great outdoor activities for children including building sandcastles and it is a great way to keep children happy at the beach. Read on to find loads of cool sandcastle ideas for kids and families. So read this post before your next beach trip and you’ll have so much fun with your whole family. Perhaps you could even have a sand castle contest.
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Sandcastle building top tips
As much as building sandcastles is a fun family activity, you do need to consider a few things when starting building your sandcastle to ensure success.
Before you even go to the beach you need to make sure you pack the right tools, I’ll talk more about these and give you some suggestions a little later.
Once you get to the beach you need to consider the right place to build your sandcastle. Think about finding wet sand that will be ideal for creating that perfect sandcastle. Dry sand does not stick together so is not suitable for sand castle building. An area of flat sand is ideal for creating a strong base for the castle.
To start building a basic castle
- the first step is to fill your bucket with wet sand,
- pat the sand down to make sure your bucket is totally full of sand,
- scrape off any excess sand,
- quickly turn your bucket over onto the flat surface and pat the top of the bucket with your spade,
- carefully pull the bucket up to reveal your first tower.
Now you know how to make a basic sand castle, now you can do on to add a second tower and make a larger castle.
You can collect some natural materials that you can use to decorate your castle-like shells, pebbles, sea glass and even seaweed. Adding decorations can add lots of fine details which can really enhance your sand castle. You might like to pack some * mini flags to go on top of your castles.
Basic sandcastle tools
There are some really cool sand toys available which I’ll share below but the most important tools you need to build a simple sandcastle is a * bucket and spade. If you want to create a basic castle then a simple plastic bucket will do or you could choose a castle-shaped bucket.
Through experience, we have found that the basic bucket is often the best as wet sand will often stick into all the intricate details on those * castle-shaped buckets and doesn’t come out of the bucket easily.
Small * shaped sand moulds are perfect for kids to make either a small sand sculpture or to add more detail and interest to larger creations. There are some really cute ones available to buy.
You could even use plastic cups to build lots of really small towers. This might be the perfect solution if you forget your sand toys. Buy a takeaway coffee and use the cup and your bare hands to build a really cool sand castle.
Next level sandcastle building tools
Once you have mastered building a simple sandcastle then it’s time to take your sandcastle construction to the next level. You can build some really interesting designs with your family.
How cool are these * brick sand moulds? These are great for building interesting sand castles.
A * large spade is often a really useful tool to take to the beach for grown-ups and bigger kids especially if you plan to build a large castle.
Sandcastle ideas pictures
This is quite a simple sandcastle but the decorations really add to the sandcastle. The small moat is cute too.
Who can build the most sandcastles? This design is simple but the large number of sandcastles give it impact. You could add a moat or continue to keep adding more pebbles.
This is a large mound of sand that has had a simple sandcastle on top of it. They then surrounded it with lots more towers and started to decorate it with a few shells and pebbles. You could continue to add more decorations.
How amazing is this sandcastle that we discovered on the beach? The whole family were involved in creating this one. In fact, it has become a family tradition for several generations of the family to build a very large sandcastle. I can’t even imagine how long it took to build.
This beautiful sand sculpture is really enhanced by all the pebbles surrounding it.
This one is a little bit more complicated than most of the others. The moat as the tide is coming in is a really fun idea that you could replicate on a simpler sandcastle.
How fun is this? Make a sandcastle big enough for you to stand inside. Almost like your own medieval castle!
How cool is this to make your sandcastle multi-level! You’re going to need plenty of wet sand for this one and to make sure that each level has a strong a flat base before you build another level of sancastles.
This one is simple but effective. I love the door created out of drift wood.
I love the sea shells added to these 4 castles and the moat dug around them too.
This is another example of a simple sandcastle which is made even better by the addition of shells to decorate it.
Find more seasonal activities for kids here.
More beach activities for children
- Building sandcastles is one of my favourite beach activities for children
- Don’t forget to pack your free printable beach scavenger hunt for more beach fun for kids.
- Many of these outdoor games for children can also be played on the beach.
- Many of these Garden games for kids are perfect to take along to the beach.
- These Beach theme printables are great at home or at the beach.