Carpentry: Sailboats to Float

This is not a good project to try when you are short-handed, but it is exciting and worthwhile. Allow for lots of variations on the basic designs.

Objectives

Children ages 4-5 years can cut on a straight line with scissors
and they can draw designs or pictures FM III
Children ages 3-4 years can drive nails into wood FM II
and ages 1 ½-2 years can scribble FM III

 

Materials

Wood scraps (fat, long pieces for boat, and fat, smaller pieces for the cabin); doweling or ½” square molding strips; nails; hammers; thumbtacks; paper; scissors; string; felt pens; pictures of boats.

1. Have children look at picture of boats and explain that they are going to build boats of their own to float. Show them a sample of the kind of boat they can make.

2. Have each child hammer a nail through the cabin piece and flip it over so the sharp end of the nail is sticking up. Have them nail the cabin (the smaller piece) onto the bottom (the larger piece). Hammer mast into protruding nail. Have cards on which a diagonal is drawn. Let each child cut along the diagonal to make a sail.

3. Have children draw on their sail or write the name of their sailboat, and help each thumbtack the sail to the mast.

4. Hammer a nail on the bow of the boat and tie a piece of string or yarn to the nail to guide the boat to the water.

5. Take the children to the nearest pond, lake, river, stream, overflowing ditch, or plastic swimming pool and sail the boats.

NOTE: The design of the boats may be too difficult for many younger children, or just not how they want to do it. Don’t worry; these vessels won’t have to pass inspection by the Coast Guard.