Today’s Wonder of the Day was inspired by Miss Jones. Miss Jones Wonders, “How do you make a really good sand castle?” Thanks for WONDERing with us, Miss Jones!

Do you like to show your creativity through art? Maybe you enjoy painting. Most kids enjoy coloring with crayons. Older kids might like sculpting works of art out of clay or play-dough.

When you think about art, you might think of it as permanent. After all, that picture you drew in kindergarten might still hang on your refrigerator years later. And that sculpture you made of the dog that most people can’t identify? It’ll probably still be sitting on a shelf when you graduate from high school.

Not all works of art are permanent, though. Think about a Broadway performance. When it’s over, it’s over. Sure, it might live on in your memory or on film. But the live show was a special event. It was limited to one time and place.

Can you think of other forms of art that are temporary? If you’re a fan of the beach, sandcastles might come to mind. Have you ever spent hours with your pail and shovel building a beautiful sandcastle?

If you have, you probably were sad when it was time to leave the beach. Your work of art might last a few more hours. However, you knew it would be gone as soon as the tide came in. The sandy beach is a canvas that nature erases daily.

Most of the time, art made from sand can’t last long. Still, many people love using sand to create their own unique vision of beauty. One of the most mesmerizing types of sand art is sand animation.

Sand animation is a type of live performance art. Artists who work in sand animation use sand to make a set of images that usually tell a story. They often start with a large amount of sand on a flat surface, such as a table. They then use their hands and fingers to draw in the sand.

It might seem like using sand would limit the art you could make. However, the wide variety of beautiful and highly-detailed sand artworks might surprise you. Many of these works of art are very temporary. That’s where the animation part comes in.

Sand animation artists create a series of images that seem to move to tell a story. They might also use music and special lighting to complete the effect. Sometimes they take photographs or video of their creation throughout the process. Then, they turn it into a sand animation movie when it’s finished.

Sand animation has been around for decades. However, there are still rather few sand animation artists compared to other types of artists. Some of the most famous sand artists include Ferenc Cakó, Kseniya Simonova, Caroline Leaf, Ilana Yahav and Joe Castillo.

Standards: CCRA.L.3, CCRA.L.6, CCRA.R.1, CCRA.R.2, CCRA.R.4, CCRA.R.10, CCRA.SL.1, CCRA.W.2, CCRA.L.1, CCRA.L.2

Wonder What's Next?

Tomorrow's Wonder of the Day takes a look at what happens to old, dirty bills!