If you've ever been relaxing on the beach, admiring everyone else's sand castles, and wishing you knew how to build one - well, have we got a treat for you. Building a sand castle really isn't as difficult as it looks, and only requires a few key tools. So, grab your pail and shovel, and let's get started.
Essential Ingredients
Since we're all beginners here, all we need for now is a pail and a shovel. One of those cheap little plastic pails your kid brother is always carrying around will be fine. As for the shovel, as long as it's got a smooth side to it, whatever you can track down in your basement should do the trick.
Back to the Beach
This next step requires you to be at the beach, but if you've got one of those cheesy little sand playgrounds in your backyard, that might be a good place to practice. Now, if you've ever tried stacking sand, you've probably noticed that it doesn't stay stuck together all that well. That's because it's missing a key ingredient - water. If you take your pail and fill it up with sand, and then pour water in there, you'll find that the water turns the sand into a much stickier substance.
Build Me Up Buttercup
Okay, now that you've got a pail full of sticky sand, you can dump it out in front of you. Lift the pail up and voila! You've just begun building your sand castle. The first thing you need to do is build the base, which can easily be done by dumping pails full of sand into a square or circular shape. Now, mold them into a more recognizable wall shape, and you're already halfway there.
Finishing Touches
This is the part where you get to be creative. With the base in place, all you really need to do now is figure out just what you want your castle to look like. Keep piling up the wet sand like bricks, smoothing out the edges as you go along. You can put towers or windows or add some seashells, seaweed or other treasures you find lying around to your castle - throw on whatever you think will turn your sand castle into a kickin' work of art!
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