How To Build a Boat - Our Latest Project

A few of the children have been interested in boats.  One boy really wanted to build a boat from a cardboard box.  So we did some research and planning.
                    
We asked our school librarian for books on boats and we also used the internet. 
          The above picture was the beginning of our work.

         
To inspire other children I found some samples of boats and set them out
                                              for play.

 
Day 1 we started with the box and thought about what kind of boat it could be.
  
   I had a couple of paddles so they sat in it to get a feel of a boat. 
             To start seeing the box, not as a box, but as a boat.
  
     We added a blue sheet underneath for water and kept on playing.
               
          We played the rest of the morning as it was.

Day 2 the child that was really interested in building the boat arrived and was excited to see what we had done.  But he remembered the ideas that he sketched and went to work.
  
He first wanted to add a motor so we went into my storage room and he found a 2 litre bottle and taped it onto one end of the boat.  In the second picture he is cutting a hole for the water to go in and out.
      
     He checked out the sample boats and decided ours needed a sail. 
                 We used some PVC pipe to make the mast.

He used an old sheet to make the sail.  After he drew a triangle and cut it out
       we realized we needed something to hold the bottom of the sail.
          
We used packing tape to hold it together.  The same with sticking the pipe to
               the bottom of the box because it was falling over.
  
The children continued to play in the boat and the boy continued to create more. 
 
           He made an anchor and we added a life jacket and preserver.

But as the day ended we had problems with keeping the mast standing up so we checked the boat samples and saw that they used rope (rigging) to keep it up.
   
I was worried about the children getting tied up in the strings but so far
                          there has been no issues with it.

Day 3 and a dingy was added because sailboats have dingys.

         
A smaller box was tied to the sailboat with a long enough string for it to float behind.  When he wanted it he pulled the string in and carefully climb from one boat to the other.

              
              Anyone know a song about sailboats we could sing? 
               We’ve been singing Row Row Row Your Boat a lot. 
                                     The children love it.