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Friday, June 24, 2011

Paper boats

My nieces and nephews were in town so I decided to make paper boats with them.  It was a big hit!


 First we all colored on white printer paper with crayon.  The layer of wax helps the boat float.  Most of us just colored on 1 side but you could definitely color on both sides for a more colorful boat.


Be sure to make sure your child knows if they draw a picture it's ok but the picture won't show because it will be folded up.  We just drew designs, stripes, and polka dots.


After we colored our papers, we folded them into boats.  I used the tutorial here to fold them.  It's really easy once you have done it once or twice.

 We took our boats to Lion's Park in Provo to float.  This park is perfect for this activity because it has a long, shallow stream that runs along the whole park.  Near the parking lot there is a cement walkway over the water that is close enough you can get your boats in.  We had the kids all lay on their stomach and drop their boat into the water.

Once the boats were floating we all walked along the side of the stream following it the whole way through the park.  Even though water levels everywhere are at record highs, this stream is still only a couple of inches deep so I wasn't too worried about someone falling in and getting swept away.



 There is one part that has tiny rapids.  A few of our boats started sinking after this part, but most made it through.  It was fun to watch them all go through it.


At the end of the park are 2 bridges over the water.  The dads layed on their stomach on the second to last bridge to catch the boats when they got to the end of the park.  This way if we missed one (which we did) they could run to the last bridge to pick it up.  The picture below is of Elliot on the last bridge getting a boat we missed. 

I totally recommend this activity!  The kids LOVED it and were all asking to go back for the rest of the week.  I would recommend having more than one adult to supervise near the water and help get the boats out at the end of the park.
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1 comment:

  1. I love this also! So many great ideas on one blog! Brillant my fellow blogger! I am so glad I found your blog today!

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