This week we made a little jungle boat suitable for floating down the Amazon ...or perfect for the kiddie pool! This is a project that quite a few of us got involved in doing! Most of the steps would be suited to older children than Yashar (who is 20 months) but he loved picking out the sail and playing with the boat at the end! It took a little bit of trial and error, but this is how we ended up making it:
1. Senol (my lovely husband) and my nephew and niece collected small branches from a fig tree and cut them so that we had two larger pieces for the bottom (approximately 22cm or 8.5 inches long), 12 smaller pieces for the top (approximately 18.5 cm or 7.25 inches long), and one thinner piece for the mast (approximately 19 cm or 7.5 inches long). Senol used garden secateurs to cut them nice and evenly.2. Senol then nailed a nail up through the middle of one of the pieces for the top and in to the centre of the piece for the mast (making a T shape). We ended up having to put a little super glue in to hold it together as the pieces of wood were a slightly hollow in the centre.
3. Then (after a few of us had a go at trying to figure out the best way to put it all together!) I attached the two larger bottom pieces to the two of the top pieces using some wool (string would probably be better but wool is what we had), making a square shape. No special technique here, just wrapping it around and across until it felt nice and secure.4. Next I attached the rest of the pieces for the top together by weaving it over and under each piece. Basically I would attach three at a time, weaving under and over each, then going back the opposite way, then forwards again. I would then wrap the wool around the bottom piece a few times, then attach the next three and so on. I tried to make it as secure as possible and attached the mast T shape about half way along.
5. Repeat step 4 along the other side of the boat.
6. Yashar and I picked a nice big fig leaf out that I threaded on the mast to make a sail.
Yashar was given the special job of carrying it over to test in the puddle - very important! It floated!
This evening we put it in with Yashar in the kiddie pool - he was so excited!
2 comments:
What a wonderful mother you are. Yashar growing with love and so many creative hand made toys. I love you my canim
I was looking for ideas for a jungle theme craft for kids to do. I found yours and was enchanted with the involvement of your whole family! I do my crafts at a library in Canada during the summer with kids who drop in. Since I won't know how many show up, I may not be able to do that craft. But I plan to have it on hand in case we only get a small group of kids one day. Thank you for sharing your idea!!!
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