Tag Archives: snail

Smaug Gigantus

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Photo by Shivanparusnath. Image source: Wikimedia Commons

What do you get when science and Tolkien unite? Absolutely amazing nods to a titan of the fantasy world! The handsome reptile you see above might not have heaps of gold to protect, but it did capture the imagination of scientist Ed Stanley, who named it Smaug Gigantus after the famous literary dragon in The Hobbit.

This giant girdled lizard can be found in South Africa, dwelling in the Drakensberg mountain range. It has tough upper armor and a weaker underbelly, not unlike Smaug himself. You can read a bit more about it here.

Fascinated, Katie and I took to the interwebs to see how many more scientists were Tolkien fans. As it turns out, quite a lot!

Image source: Orchid Roots

This is the Dracula smaug orchid, discovered by Mario Portilla in Ecuador. And just in case you are wondering, “Dracula” is not a second literary reference. Dracula translates into “little dragon,” matching the appearance of the various orchids in this genus. You can read more about them here.

The adventure doesn’t stop there. In Tolkien Gateway, we found a massive listings of wasps, plants, moths, mammals, beetles, and more! Behold the Gollum shark!

Slender smoothhound, Gollum attenuatus (Garrick, 1954), collected 18 December 1953, Off Kahu Rocks, Wairarapa, New Zealand. CC BY 4.0. Te Papa (P.001509). Original image from the Museum of New Zealand

And the hairy-footed moss forest bat, otherwise known as the Syconycteris hobbit!

Image source: Zoo Chat

Or how about the Myloplus sauron, a close relative of the piranha? You can read a little more about the discovery and naming of the fish here!

Image source: Wikipedia

The full Tolkien Gateway list can be found here, and we invite you to spend a happy afternoon conducting image searches of the various species. Don’t miss the Spaeleoleptes gimli spider! And if you’d like some further fun reading, look no further than this Mental Floss post! And hats off to Pensoft blog for the absolute best blog title (and awesome photos of the Idiopyrgus eowynae and Idiopyrgus meriadoci).

The Ultimate Staycation

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Why experience all the fuss and muss of travel when you can have just as much fun at home? And with our super-cozy snail house, you’ll be residing in style and comfort!

We read How to Staycation Like a Snail, written by Naseem Hrab, and illustrated by Kelly Collier (Owlkids, 2024). All of Snail’s friends like to travel, but Snail prefers to have fantastic epic adventures at home. Luckily, his friend Stump agrees and the two embark on the staycation to end all staycations. It gets even more fun when a few new friends drop in (literally)!

You’ll need:

  • 1 small box (we used a 4″ x 4″ x 4″ craft box, but a small tissue box works too)
  • Tag board or poster board
  • A house frames template, printed on 8.5″ x 11″ card stock
  • Scissors, tape and glue for construction
  • Construction paper and markers for decorating

We’ve made these box snails before (check out our awesome snail race!) and this modified version isn’t too different. Cut a neck out of tag board or poster board, fold one end to create the head, and then add a pair of eye stalks. Attach everything to a small box. The spiral snail shell is also made of poster board. And it’s the door…to your house!

Swing the shell outward, and the cozy interior of your home is revealed. Use construction paper and markers to decorate the interior and put up some artwork. We went for extra cozy with patterned paper, felt carpets, fabric leaf throw rugs, and an easy chair made out of a paper water cup. There’s even a little book to read!

If you’d like to see some of our other tiny house projects, check out this multilingual dollhouse, this dog bone cottage, and this super charming pit.

Go Snail Racer Go!

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Who says a snail can’t be speedy? Start your engines, we’re putting it in 5th gear with a remote control snail racer rally!

We read Snail Crossing by Corey R. Tabor (Balzer + Bray, 2020). When Snail spots a delicious cabbage field across the road, he decides to motor over. However, many obstacles (birds, cars, rain, his own sense of direction) deter him from his goal. Thankfully, with the help of some new friends, it’s cabbage soup and tea for all! This book is hilarious and SO much fun to read aloud. Lots of laughter at story time! Highly recommend!

You’ll need:

  • 1 box (ours was 4” x 4” x 4”, but a small tissue box works too)
  • Poster board
  • 1 wheel assembly (more on that below)
  • 1 RC car or pull string
  • Scissors, tape and/or glue for construction
  • Markers for decorating

The snail part of this project is very simple. Decorate 2 poster board snail shells and attach them to both sides of a small box. To make the snail’s head and neck, round one end of an 8″ strip of poster board, then fold to create a head. Don’t forget the eye stalks! We also added a paper racing helmet, but that is optional. Tab the other end of the strip and attach it to the underside of the box.

If you are going to eventually make this a pull string snail like we did, you will find the wheel assembly instructions here. Finish the whole look off with color masking tape stripes and star stickers, or just use markers to decorate. We added red dot sticker taillights and a sticker license plate as well.

Now to get your snail moving! We thought an RC snail rally would be super awesome, so I made a quick trip to Jazams, our local toy store. I found these RC trucks for $17.

One quick note: You’ll notice that the RC truck in the picture above has a nose that sticks out. There was another box, exact same recycling truck, except it had a flat front (see below). Turns out the truck with the flat front held the snail box MUCH better. So aim to find a flat front truck if at all possible!

I removed the green recycle section from the back of the truck, cut a hole in the bottom of each snail box, and then slid the snail onto the cab of the truck like so:

Then we headed out to the big lobby to race our snails! As you can imagine, it super chaotic (we had four running at once). So we waited until a slightly calmer time to video these two racers in action!