Sailing Boats

It is week two of the six week challenge I have been given to provide outside activities by Lil Tigers. Even though this is a simple activity, I think sometimes they are the best! This one certainly never ceases to entertain children, and they are great for little hands. In addition to this, there is still so much learning that can take place too!

Arts and Craft Projects like this one helps your child develop 5 key skills:

• Reading and following Instructions.

• Concentration and focus on the project to carry it out.

• Fine Motor skills, as they cut and color the sails, and insert the mast into the sponge.

• Patience as the boat is assembled, if you use glue for your mast and sail, the child will have to wait for this to dry. Maybe cutting the sponge is too tricky for them, they will need to wait as you carefully cut it for them.

• Problem Solving. Do you have all the items you need? If not, can they think of an alternative? Such as maybe using a popsicle stick instead of a straw?

See below to see the boats take off down the creek!

These boats captured the attention of both the 9 and 2 year old, so it definitely was a Win-Win. HORRAH! So much so, since then, the two year old keeps looking in my bag to see if they are in there so we can do it again!

All you need for this activity is a kitchen sponge, straws and recycled card for the sails. You can make the boat big as you like, but since we wanted to have races, we decided to make two.

We ventured to a little creek to try them out, but these can be used in the bath, or simply in any water play. You too can still have races, all you need is to use a straw to blow wind in the sales!

Use a piece of card from an old cereal box or tissue box, cut in a rectangle, draw & color your design on your sail.

Make a small hole in the sponge and insert the straw (mast), The use tape or glue to attach the sails to the straw.

The great thing about this activity is that the sponge boats can be used again and again. If the sails get wet, it is easy to replace them, and your child could experiment with different shapes for a sail to see which works best.

Watch how quickly they take a trip down the stream!

Happy Sailing!