Stories in Sand: Sculpture Descriptions

Mother Goose

Inspired by French fairy tales and English nursery rhymes
Created by The Sand Sculpture Company

Nursery rhymes have been recited by families and children for many generations to stimulate imagination and help young children to develop literacy and problem-solving skills.

HUMPTY DUMPTY
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;
All the King’s horses, and all the King’s men
Cannot put Humpty Dumpty together again.

THE MOUSE AND THE CLOCK
Hickory, dickory, dock!
The mouse ran up the clock;
The clock struck one,
And down he run,
Hickory, dickory, dock!

THERE WAS AN OLD WOMAN
There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.
She had so many children she didn’t know what to do.

THE CAT AND THE FIDDLE
Hey, diddle, diddle!
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon;
The little dog laughed
To see such sport,
And the dish ran away with the spoon.

OLD MOTHER HUBBARD
Old Mother Hubbard
Went to the cupboard,
To give her poor dog a bone;
But when she got there
The cupboard was bare,
And so the poor dog had none.

She went to the hosier’s
To buy him some hose;
When she came back
He was dressed in his clothes.

The dame made a curtsy,
The dog made a bow;
The dame said, “Your servant,”
The dog said, “Bow-wow.”

Alice in Wonderland

Inspired by Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865)
Created by The Sand Sculpture Company

Down the rabbit-hole…
Alice went, after a White Rabbit with a pocket watch, down down down, would the fall never come to an end? She awakes in a room with a table and a key to a tiny door that she is too large to enter.  This mystical world is full of human-like creatures with magical potions that shrink her to the size of a mouse and grow her to enormous heights. Alice meets a variety of animals with big personalities, including the grinning Cheshire Cat and the Caterpillar, before joining the Hatter and March Hare for a rather strange tea party. Shrinking, then growing, and shrinking once again, Alice enters a beautiful garden that is, in fact, not a garden after all, but the Queen of Hearts’ croquet court with living playing cards, flamingo mallets, and hedgehog croquet balls. The short-tempered Queen of Hearts threatens to put Alice to death, but Alice grows once more, declaring moments before waking up that her guards were just a deck of cards—for it was all just a dream.

For kids

• What is your favorite dream?
• Would you rather be very small like a mouse or very tall like a giraffe?

Peter Pan

Inspired by characters created in a series of stories by J.M. Barrie (starting in 1902)
Created by Team Sandtastic

All children, except one, grow up.

A boy who can fly and never grow old, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood with fairies, pirates, mischievous characters such as Captain Hook and Mr. Smee, and his best friend, Tinker Bell, showing ordinary children around the world that it’s okay to be themselves. Neverland is a special place, a magical and unique experience for each child who visits. Following their adventures in Neverland, Peter and the children defeat Captain Hook aboard a pirate ship docked in crocodile-infested waters before safely returning to London, flying through midnight skies with the help of Tinker Bell’s magical fairy dust. Was it real, was it a dream? Gaze out your bedroom window for a pirate ship docked amongst the clouds, because dreams do come true, if only we wish hard enough.

For kids

• Would you prefer to live as a child always or to live as a grown-up too someday?
• If you could fly, where would you go?

Winnie-the-Pooh

Inspired by Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne and E.H. Shepard (1926)
This sand sculpture is sponsored by Sticky Situations
Created by Sand Sculptures by John Gowdy

In the middle of the forest, and in the middle of this place was a large oak tree.

Buzzing, buzzing! With the sound of bees, Winnie-the-Pooh’s ears perk up. Bees mean honey, and honey is Pooh’s favorite—though his taste for honey often lands him in “Sticky Situations.”  In the Hundred Acre Wood, Pooh and his beloved friends set off on fun adventures. Cheerful, compassionate, and wise Christopher Robin, and Piglet, who is cautious and anxious but a most loyal friend, are Pooh’s closest companions. Happy-go-lucky Tigger might be a little irresponsible, but his heart is always in the right place. The irritable Rabbit, who believes himself to be the smartest animal in the Wood, still manages to care deeply for those around him. Eeyore, the beloved yet ever-glum donkeywhose tail often comes undone from his bottom, is always willing to find solutions to everyday problems. Together, the friends are unstoppable, for a day without a friend is like a pot without a single drop of honey left inside.

And so, we encourage you to channel your inner Pooh and sample his favorite ‘hunny’ at Sticky Situations.

For kids

• What food do you like as much as Winnie-the-Pooh likes honey?
• What is a problem that you recently solved and how did you do it?

Once Upon a Time…

Inspired by fairy tales collected and shared by multiple sources, including Joseph Jacobs (1890), the Brothers Grimm (1812) and Charles Perrault (1697)
Created by Sand Sculptures by John Gowdy

Jack and the Beanstalk

Fee-fi-fo-fum! A long, long time ago, Jack, a poor country boy, traded a family cow for a handful of magical beans. The beans, once planted, sprouted into an enormous beanstalk that reached the sky. Curious, Jack climbed up the towering beanstalk and was greeted by an unfriendly giant. The boy outsmarted the giant and discovered treasures, including gold, an enchanted goose, and a magical harp. Outsmarting the hungry Giant, Jack quickly escaped down the beanstalk and chopped it down. Jack defeated his foe, and with the treasure, his family prospered.

Rapunzel

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair! In exchange for the rapunzel taken from her garden, a witch demanded a lonely couple’s soon-to-be-born child. Once the daughter was born, the witch locked her up in the highest room of the tallest tower and named the young girl, who had long, glowing, magical hair, Rapunzel. One day, the witch left for the market, and, while waiting for the witch to return, Rapunzel sang beautiful songs out of a small window. A prince, walking in the nearby forests, heard her singing, and, after seeing the witch climb the tower using Rapunzel’s golden hair, he requested she do the same for him. But the witch discovered the Prince and separated the couple! After years of wandering, the Prince reunited with Rapunzel, her hair now cut, and they lived happily ever after.

Cinderella

In a tiny kingdom, far, far away, lived a young woman whose journey to becoming Princess meant staying true to herself, for she knew that beauty came from within. Though she had a wicked stepmother, who brought with her two unpleasant daughters, Cinderella managed to remain a kind-hearted person, despite having been ordered to become a servant in her very own home. Across town, the King decided to host an extravagant ball to help his son, the Prince, find a princess. Cinderella’s step-sisters dressed in billowing gowns while she, all alone, sat by the hearth. Helped by her fairy godmother, Cinderella attended the ball dressed in finery and wearing a pair of glass slippers. There, the Prince, in awe of the loveliest woman in all of the kingdom, danced with her all evening, and the two fell in love. But the hands of the clock were approaching midnight! Fearing her dress would become tattered once more, Cinderella rushed out of the castle, leaving a slipper behind. Holding the slipper, the Prince set off on a search through the kingdom for his one true love. When the Prince gently slid the slipper on Cinderella’s foot, it was a perfect fit. He’d found his Princess! They lived happily ever after.

For kids

• Knowing that beauty comes from within, who do you know who is truly beautiful?
• If you lived in a giant castle, what would your favorite room be?

Jungle Book

Inspired by The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling (1894)
Created by Team Sandtastic

For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack. Mowgli, the young orphan boy raised by a wolf pack in the deep jungles of India, is urged by Bagheera, a panther, to return to his own people before Shere Khan, the tiger, returns to the jungle. This tiger despised humans – he feared their guns, fire, and destructive tendencies. But Mowgli is determined to stay. In the jungle, he encounters many dangerous animals, including a hungry python who nearly devours him the first chance he gets, and King Louie, an orangutan leader, who offers to trade Mowgli’s freedom for a lesson on making fire. Thankfully, Bagheera and a bear named Baloo find the young boy just in time. After many adventures involving the hungry python and the fierce tiger, Bagheera and Baloo soon realize that the jungle will never be a safe place for a human boy. Despite his unwillingness to leave the jungle, Mowgli notices a young human girl fetching water from a river and follows her to a nearby village. Mowgli soon embarks on a new journey, alongside his human friends, providing him the ability to move between two different worlds, to the friends and family he has grown to love. He realizes true friends will forever be by his side.

For kids

• What is your favorite jungle animal?
• If you lived in a jungle for a few weeks, what would you miss most from home?

About the Artists