Imaginative:
- Place out a table upside down, attach a flag, place out pirate hats and treasures, allow the children to sail away
- Place out a large swimming pool as a boat place it on a blue cloth with fish, have the children sail and fish
- Place out life jackets and boat safety items
Language:
- Read “Busy Boats”
- Read “Do Pirates take baths”
- Read “Little Tug”
- Read “Boats for bedtime”
- Read “If We Had A Sailboat”
- Make boat puppets for the children to move around
- Make a flannel board game to the song “5 little boats”
- Five sailboats went out one day
Over the waves and far away
One sailboat returns to the dock
Four sailboats…
Art:
- Make boats out of milk cartons
- Place out shapes and paper, allow the children to make boats
- Place the child’s hand into paint making a print, have square pieces of paper to glue on for the sails
- Place pictures of boats and allow the children to do rubbings
- Dip rings into paint to make life rings
- Paint boats
- Use brown paper bags and origami to make canoes
Water/Sand
- Have a boat washing station, with sponges and boats
- Make a dock in the water table
- Place out people in the sand with boats
- Place out boats and a wood plank in the sand for a dock
- Put treasure in the sand table
- Place out fishing nets in the water table
Gross Motor
- Find the boat
- Talk with your children about various kinds of boats, such as sailboats, motorboats, tugboats, tankers, barges, rowboats, and canoes. Then call out the boat names, one at a time, and have the children act out their movements.
- Sail boats in ponds or large pools
Science/Curiosity
- Sink or float: place out items with a bucket to see what items float or sink
- Place different anchors out for the children to see
- Place out life rings for the children to examine
- Make balloon boats measure how far they go
Blocks
- Place out pirate boats, treasure and castles in the block center
- Place out a blue sheet and wood for the children to make wood boats with waffle blocks
- Place out boats and people
Conceptual/Table top/Fine motor
- Boat matching game
- Memory game using boats
- Place out sail boat shapes have the children lace the sail
- Sorting boat parts
- Make boat puzzles
- Place out play dough for the children to make boats
- Make a boat race for the children to roll a dice and move around the water
- Lace the life jackets
- Bead the ropes on the life rings
Music:
- Sing ‘Row Row Row Your Boat’
- Make water sticks using rice and paper tubes
Quiet
- Place out squishy bags: Ziploc bags filled with blue hair gel, hide boats and fish inside, tape securely closed and to a tray.
- Make paper boats for the children to move around with little people
Cooking
- Make apple boats
- Place a wedge of apple out with a pretzel (mast) cheese for the flag and enjoy
Field trip
- Go the lake and see if there are boats
- Go to the boat store or sporting goods store
Extensions from the activities
- Pirate treasure hunt
- Go on a boat ride
