Build a Recycled Sailboat

While you collect the building materials, talk with your child about reducing, reusing, and recycling, and how these actions help the environment. Point out the recycle symbol on the bottom of a container and talk about what it means. Explain that, together, you are going to make a sailboat out of some items you no longer use.

Encourage her to use her imagination to design the boat. Ask her for additional ideas for materials that could be used.

Use a larger container as the body of the boat.

Have your child help you tape a craft stick or coffee stirrer pointing up, as the mast.

Cut big shapes from the magazines for sails and help your child tape them to the mast.

Encourage your child to decorate the boat as much as she would like.

Talk to your child about wind and how it can make things move. Ask her, “How does wind sound?” and “What does the wind feel like?” Then, have your child blow on her hands, first making a soft breeze and then a strong gust of wind. Ask her to show you other ways to make the air move (waving her hands, fanning the air with an object).

Put the boat in the water basin or bathtub. Let your child use her wind power to make her sailboat move across the water. Try blowing through straws or fanning with cardboard. Ask her what works best.