Ship Building!
We have been reading lots of pirate books and the kids have started to play pirates both at the beach and at our site. After reading a “Matthew and the Pirates” book, we brainstormed some ideas of what pirate ships look like and then split into groups to start the building process. The kids looked at some pirate books and made plans on their clip boards. Their ships had to fit every member of their team!
They started building their ships and the next day their big buddy class came out to help finish them. Soon the ships started to take shape; there were canoes, planks, walls, decks, masts, sails, crows’ nests, rooms for gold and of course treasure chests. Since then, there has been an explosion of pirate play!
Building Boats that Will Float!
To expand on their pirate ship play, we went down to Bee Creek and on the way collected things that may sink or float. While experimenting one child figured out that the rocks sink if you put it in the water, but you can make it float by placing the rock on a large piece of bark! We learned that sticks, bark, and leaves float and that rocks and some fir cones sink.
They next day we brought some clay, dried leaves and elastics out with us into the woods. The children built small boats. Then, the next day we brought them down to Bee Creek, did some predicting as to what would happen and then we sailed them.
Children’s Comments:
-Ours flipped over when it didn’t have a sail. Then we put a sail on it and it floated
-As soon as I put it in the water it flipped over.
-The bottom of mine was too small. It doesn’t have enough wideness.
-Some are flat and some are not.
We decided to build the boats again the next week to see if we could use our knowledge of what worked and what didn’t work and refine them…
(Written by N
ature Kindergarten ECE Erin Van Stone)
