Thursday, September 20, 2012

Balloon Boats



I saw these a while ago on A Little Learning for Two and have been waiting for the right time to try it.  Since we were already on the subject of transportation this week I figured this would be a good time!

Our supplies included a container for the boat, hole punch, straw, rubber band, balloon, and hot glue. I started with 2 plastic mushroom containers.


They had low sides and flat bottoms, so I figured they would be pretty stable.  I used a hole punch to make a hole in one of the short sides of each boat.


Then I took a balloon and rubber banded it onto a straw,




I stuck the straw through the hole in the boat with the balloon on the inside of the boat.


Then I hot glued around it on both sides (A Little Learning for Two used blue tack, but the best I had was hot glue). Excuse the poor glue job; it was hard for me to get around the straw!


Once they were dry, I filled the pool up a little, and we headed outside to try them out.  At first I blew up the balloons and the girls took them, holding the straws tightly, and released them in the water.  They enjoyed watching them go.  It did take them a little while to figure out that the air from the balloon was what was making the boats move.





Bria figured out how to blow up her own balloon! 




I hadn't bothered to blow the pool up completely before filling it figuring we would just put it away after this. This was much too inviting for Eli though, and before I knew it he was soaked! Of course, the girls had to join in.