One of the activities during my son’s Pirate Birthday Party last month was creating Cork Boats. They were very easy to do and a lot of fun. Here’s how to make your own:
Supplies
- corks (ours were purchased from The Scrap Exchange)
- foam sheets
- wood skewers
- foam stickers (optional)
- hot glue
Instructions
To keep the craft simple and do-able during the party, I did a bit of prep work beforehand. I used hot glue to attach the corks together in sets of 3 to create the base of the boats for the kids to build from.
Next I sketched a sail pattern onto a piece of scrap paper and cut it out to trace onto the foam sheets. I precut all the of sails so the kids would have a colorful selection to choose from.
The skewers purchased from our grocery store were far too long so I cut each in half with a pair of scissors and poked them into the sails. Then separated all the different boat pieces into plastic containers. I placed them on our Little Tikes picnic table in the backyard for the kids to have easy access to craft with. We put together one boat so they could visualize the project.
Admittedly, craft projects with young kids can be hit or miss. Depends on the personality and interest. These cork boats were a huge hit! I think the simplicity and quick assembly helped. Plus, the allure of water is always a huge hit with boys. We had a low container filled with water just to the side of the picnic table so they could test out their boats.
After the party ended, we found our son happily playing with all the leftover boats in the small “pond.” A lot of fun pirate play resulted from this simple craft.
Looking for more pirate themed craft fun? Learn how to make your own spyglass HERE.
4 Comments
We first made cork boats Labor Day a year ago to take to play with in the creek when we went to the mountains for a picnic. Tristan loved it. I put a thumb tack in the front and tied a piece of bakers twine to it so he could pull it back if it got into water deeper than he wanted to get in. I never even occurred to me to use the foam. I used paper that we decorated with washi and “laminated” it with packing tape.
Clever idea to use the tack and string! We’ll have to try that next time and take them to a park. There is one close by with a good little creek. I bet Dylan would love playing with these there.
NEVER AGAIN buy corks. I will be glad to help with that in the future. 🙂
Ha! Of course, the pregnant girl is currently short on them. Also, figured I was helping a good cause as we bought them at the Scrap Exchange.