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.
