Painting Excursion

Making candles

Autumn Crowns

Making an Apple Pie

making a pixie house

making boats

This week we took the kids out to the bushland of Warrandyte just outside of Melbourne, where they collected all sorts of materials to make little boats. We really love the idea of the kids constructing their own little toys because they are forced to use their imagination completely. There are no instructions or manuals, bits to lose or break. Nature is all around them, offering them so many wonderful materials and treasures with which to build their little vessels!

There were of course the odd frustration as bits wouldn’t stay on or were toppling over, trying to work out how to join this bit to that, but once the kids really started to think about what boats look like, it was amazing to see what they came up with. Some made totally majestic ships with feathers and reeds, bark and leaves. Then there were the sweet, simple little pod boats with a single sail stuck down with a bit of plasticine. It was amusing to see the different personalities reflected in each construction!

What you will need:

Different materials collected from nature such as seedpods, bark, reeds, feathers, leaves, flowers, twigs.

Other helpful materials: corks, glue, plasticine, string, icy pole sticks.

How to:

There were no rules.  This activity was really about using your imagination and experimenting with construction. The corks are probably a fairly good starting point if you really want to make sure your boat will float, but working out where to attach and how to attach the corks can be another challenge.

Just following a simple leaf boat down a stream can be fun for the kids.

Safety

Of course we must mention the importance of safety and adult supervision when children are playing near water. The boats however, would float on a very shallow little river of water, one that the kids could construct themselves in a sandpit!