One evening this summer, while we were getting ready for bath time, L pulled a wine cork out of her pocket. She had been saving it all day to float it around and play with in the bath tub. That got me thinking…I knew with a few toothpicks and some leaves we could turn her wine cork into a little sail boat! Leaves work great for this project, because they’re naturally water-proof and easily replaceable!
Materials needed:
- 2 wine corks
- 4 toothpicks
- 2 leaves
- old pencil
- scissors
Take one of the wine corks and stick three toothpicks into it, all pointing in the same direction in a line.
Next, push the second wine cork into the opposite ends of the toothpicks.
Stick one more toothpick vertically into the middle of one of the corks.
Find a medium-sized leaf and weave it through the bottom toothpicks. We used a balloon flower leaf. This step isn’t necessary, but it makes a nice lil bed for anything you may want to sail on top…a bug, a rock, a fairy friend.
Next, find a slightly larger leaf and thread it onto the vertical toothpick, making a sail. We found the hosta leaves to work best for this, though any thick and sturdy leaf will do!
To make the sail boat safer for little hands, twist an eraser off the top of an old pencil. Cut it in half with scissors and push it onto the top of the sail.
Now, time to play! L had hours of fun blowing her boats around our rain barrel!
The boats may not seem like much, but ours withstood some submarine plunges under the water and lasted through two nights of bath time play! Tomorrow, we’ll replace the leaves and keep sailing!
Enjoy!!!
