How to Make a Boat with Recycled Materials

The boat in the book Toy Boat is made using a variety of recycled or upcycled materials. You can make a boat similar to the boat in the book and it is easy to put together. Let me walk you through how to create it with your children.

How to Make a Boat

Supplies

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Empty juice box container
Duct tape, assorted colors
Bendy straws
A Cork, 10mm Top Diameter
Strong glue
Scissors
Notebook paper

Directions

You will want to start by reading the book Toy Boat to your children. Seeing how a boat made with recycled materials will help them decide how to make a boat.

Then cut one of the wide sides off of the juice box. (You may want to do this for your children)

Next, you will wrap duct tape around the sides of the juice box. Why? It will cover the straw hole on the juice box. It will also give the sides of the boat more stability.

You may need to do this next step for your children. It involves used the pointing end of a pair of scissors to make a deep hole in the top of the cork and one in the side of the cork.

When the holes have been created, a bendy straw can be placed in both of the holes. The bendy end of each straw shouldn’t be placed in the either hole. You can glue the straws into place if you like. Our straws stayed in place without being glued.

Finally, a sail will need to be made with the notebook paper. Your children can cut a triangle out of the notebook paper. We cut ours out so it would have to have notebook paper holes on the side.

The straw will need to be threaded through the two holes on the side. A small slit will need to be cut near the front corner of the triangle. The diagonal straw will be thread through that hole.

Setting Sail

Our boat set sail on a windy day in a tub of water we placed outside. If you don’t have a lot of wind on the day your boat sets sail, then you children can blow the sail of the boat to get it to move.