Soda Bottle Sailing Boat

Kids love to play in the water. And kids especially love to float toys in the water. With this great craft, they can play with a toy of their own making. A soda bottle can be turned into a sailing vessel to be used in a pool, in a pond, in the ocean, on a creek, or merely in the bathtub!

Materials:

• latex paint
• black permanent marker
• transparent tape
• 2 liter plastic bottle
• plastic drinking straw
• 5x7 sheet of plastic (a notebook divider works well)
• modeling clay

Tools:

• scissors
• paintbrush

Steps:

1. Cut the plastic bottle in half, lengthwise, keeping the base and the neck.

2. Draw designs on the outside of the plastic with a black permanent marker.

3. Color the designs on the inside of the bottle with acrylic paints.

4. Draw a sail on the plastic divider. Be sure to draw the sail about 1 inch wider than what you want so that you can attach it to the mast.

5. Fold the excess sail over, making the fold smaller towards the top of the sail, and secure with transparent tape. You want to create a hollow area to insert a straw but do not want the straw to be able to poke out the top.

6. Insert a straw into the sail.

7. Push the mast with the sail into a piece of modeling clay and then place the mast in the middle of the boat.

All that is left is to float the boat! If you make more than one sailing ship, you might want to have races. This is especially fun if you live near a moving body of water such as a creek or river. If not, create "moving water" by using your body to create waves.

Additional Ideas: Use some more plastic to create a sailor for the ship. You can even cut out your child's face from a photo so that he or she can be the sailor!