Sponge Boats

Using everyday kitchen sponges for very competitive international boat races.

Sponge boats ready for their international race.

What you need:

- sponges

- popsicle sticks

- strong tape (we had two colours which were different widths)

- scissors and a craft knife

- GB and Thailand flag stickers

How to make the sponge boats:
(See picture below)

1. Use scissors to cut one end of the sponge into a triangular shape. Then use a craft knife to make a slit in the middle of the sponge for the popsicle stick to sit in.

2. Overlap three pieces of the wide tape.

3. Do the same on the other side so that there are no sticky sections of tape left showing. Then use the thin tape to add some different colour racing stripes. Use scissors to cut across the ends to tidy up the edges.

4. Add a sticker to the tape (we used flag stickers). Use the craft knife to make a small slit at the top and bottom of the 'sail' (tape) and feed it through the 'mast' (popsicle stick). I found that it helped to wrap a little tape around the top and bottom of the mast to provide some extra grip so that the sail doesn't fall down easily.

Stages of making the sponge boat.

How it works:

As my son is relatively young he couldn't be too involved in the making of the boats due to there being lots of cutting required. He enjoyed helping with the mast and sail though.

Once the boats were ready I filled a plastic storage tub with water and he had a great time playing with the boats in the water. He then enjoyed racing them against each other. Much to my delight he took it upon himself to use the left over pieces of sponge and popsicle sticks to make his own boat (it was very prone to sinking but he was so proud of it!).

Sponge boats in action.