Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492......

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the most 'crafty' person. I just don't have the knack for coming up wtih some of these crafty ideas. But, I also know that some of the lessons I remember best during my school career involved hands-on projects to help drive them home.

 (like the huge teepee we made out of paper sacks in 3rd grade to learn about native american symbols and drawings

 - see my brain isn't completely gone) :)

So, today was a great opportunity for a project and I'm so thankful for the internet. What a great source for these kinds of things!

 

I read a short story to Wyatt (and Jonah as he played with cars in the floor) about Christopher Columbus. Then I had a timeline of the ships voyages so we plotted the route(s) on the globe.

After that we began making our boats: Nina, Pinta & Santa Maria

Painting is always a hit. I'm pretty sure we could include paint in anything and it would be fun instantly. Jonah helped too. :)

Here's a couple of pictures of the masterpiece:

This was really a very easy project. (my favorite kind)

Items Needed:

Egg Crate

Paint (acrylic) & Brushes

Toothpicks

Paper for the sails

Clay or Playdough

Cut apart the egg crate into 3 'shells'. Paint them with any color paint you choose and

set them aside to dry.

Take 6 toothpicks and break 3 of them in 1/2 so you then have 3 full toothpicks for the large sails and 6 halves for the smaller sails.

Cut peices of paper into squares. (6 peices will need to be a little larger for the big sails)

Cut 18 smaller peices for the smaller sails.

Lay out the peices of paper and put a small line of glue on the paper/sail then lay a toothpick on it and sandwich it with another peice of paper for the other side of the sail.

Repeat this with all of the paper/toothpicks until you have 6 small sails and 3 larger sails.

Once the glue dries and the paint dries, put a small glob of clay or playdough in the bottom of each boat. Insert the toothpick into the clay for the sails to stand upright.

Ta-Da! You have a Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria!