Simple Sailboat Craft and Activity


Sailboat Craft and Activity

We are constantly looking for activities to entertain our toddler while staying indoors because the summer heat here is pretty oppressive (it was in the 120s recently).  So this activity was a perfect way to keep our little one entertained and cool.  She worked diligently on building her sailboat and then spent hours (HOURS) in the bathtub playing with it! 

Materials:

sailboat materials

  • craft foam sheet (we used one rectangle cut in half)
  • markers (we used permanent markers with thicker tips)
  • a hole punch
  • a wooden dowel (we used a kitchen skewer, but you could use a chopstick if you like)
  • a clean styrofoam type container (we used a chicken container – I don’t know what they are called)

Procedure:

We laid out the foam triangles on a piece of butcher paper and let G color to her heart’s content.  She is obviously not in the drawing stage, but she loves to make her mark.  She surprised me by drawing some circles (actual) and ovals (actual) and triangles (not so much)!

Sailboat

When she was finished coloring, I cut one of the triangles into a smaller triangle. Then I punched some holes on the longest side of the triangles and treaded the wooden dowel through the holes.  Then I poked the dowels (skewers) through the center of the styrofoam container to make it look like a sailboat.

Sailboat 2

Then the fun really began!  We took our sailboat and sailed it on the “ocean” for the rest of the afternoon!

I simply added some drops of blue food coloring to water in the bathtub, got G into her swimsuit and let her have a blast sailing her boat.

sailboat 4

She quickly found some friends who wanted to go for a ride.

Sailboat 3

Then she had lots of fun making waves for the sailboat to float on.

sailboat 6

As much fun as this activity was, G was also developing and learning:

  • fine motor skills
  • water safety
  • floating vs. sinking
  • boating vocabulary (very limited!) – she called the boat a “silly boat” but I think this is based on one of the books we have about a sailboat.

For more Simple Summer Activities click here.

 


This Post Has 6 Comments

  1. Liz Coker

    Precious!!! Love this!!

    1. ussleah

      Thanks, Liz! She had such a good time with it!

    1. ussleah

      Thanks! It was pretty popular around here too!

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