A little Floatin' Fun

 

So today we had our wonderful friends over and had a lesson on John Cabot. It's always great when the kiddos relate or connect current information to previously taught information. We had a little of that today as they thought the Matthew looked like the Mayflower.

We made simple boats to go along with Canadian exploration. It was so easy and so much fun I might have to make an excuse to do these again in the summer. 

Here were our supplies:

* plastic container of choice (yogurt, milk jug, etc)

* construction paper

*paint (I used acrylic), non water based is best

*paint brushes 

*styrofoam chunks

*straws

*tape

We started off by bringing out our map and discussing the history of explorers reviewing Henry the Navigator and how he started exploration. Then we went on to watch a video from my previous post. 

I found a new video link that worked right from my iPad which showed only pictures and facts. It was great because I could narrate while it was showing the visuals. 

The 3 minute movie is here. 

As the ship pictures came along I stopped it and we started talking about what we wanted our pictures to look like. First we drew a picture of what they think they might of found while coming to Canada, then we painted the bottom of our ships.

The pictures ended up changing from deer to camel, to completely covering the canvas... oh the joy of 3- 5 year olds.

After the boat bottoms dried we constructed the inside of the boat. If I were to do it again, I would encourage them not to paint the bottom of the container (the part that sits in the water) as it just rubs off when it floats.

Then we constructed the styrofoam piece of the ship. I just took a chunk of left over styrofoam and wrapped it with white construction paper. Taped it and poked a hole in it to make sure the straw would be stable. The kids made sails and we cut two tiny slits in the sails and put them on the straws.

They loved them when they were done. We started off inside and ended up going outside to use the water table. Both boats ended up in the bath tub tonight and were still holding up just fine after a day of play. 

I hope you guys have a wonderful Friday and enjoy the time you have together. 

I'm just thankful we had a pretty good week in terms of activities. 

I so needed it this time of year.

I loved reenacting John Cabot's adventures, it offers such fun application to a very lengthy history sentence. Be sure you allow for plenty of play as I quickly realized this was hitting the charts because it simply "floated."

Gotta love simple. 

Blessings to you all!

-Crecia