Ice Boats
Featured Crafts
Supplies Needed
- Fastfood soda cup or plastic tub with lid (e.g. small ice cream tub)
- Drinking straws
- Paper
- Scissors
- Hole punch
- Masking tape
STEPS
1Prepare a container.
This craft is a good way to upcycle a fastfood soda cup or any plastic tub with lid (e.g. ice cream tub). If your soda cup has a drinking straw, wash and set it aside for Step 3.
Rinse the cup or tub, including the lid.
2Fill with water.
Fill the container with 2 to 3 inches of water. The blue line shows the water level in my cup.
3Place a drinking straw.
Place the lid on your container. If using a soda cup, put a drinking straw through the lid's center hole. Push the straw in until it touches the bottom of the cup.
If the lid on your container does not have a hole, punch one at the center of the lid. The hole must just be large enough for a drinking straw. Place a drinking straw through the hole.
4Tape the drinking straw in place.
Keep the drinking straw centered and upright by taping it in place.
5Put inside the freezer.
Place the container inside the freezer. If the drinking straw is too tall for your freezer, trim an inch or more off the top of the straw.
6Make a sail.
Cut out a paper triangle to make a sail. You can use plain paper and decorate your sail with crayons or colored markers. You can also use paper with colorful or interesting patterns on it like giftwrap paper, origami paper or magazine pages.
For a more water-resistant sail, you can cut out your triangle from plastic bags or wax paper.
7Punch a pair of holes.
Punch a pair of holes on the sail—one near the top and an opposite hole near the bottom.
8Remove from the freezer.
After a few hours, check on your container. Once the water inside is fully frozen, take the container out of the freezer.
Carefully remove the masking tape around the drinking straw and open the lid. Wait a few minutes for the ice to loosen or you can run the tap around the outside of the container to loosen the ice.
9Place the ice on a plate.
Remove the ice from the container and place it on a plate.
10Attach the sail.
Insert the tip of the drinking straw in through the sail's bottom hole, then out through the top hole. Trim the top of the drinking straw if it is too tall.
11Place your sailboat on water.
Finally, time to test your sailboat. Gently place it on water—watch it sail on a bathtub, swimming pool or pond. The bigger the ice, the longer before the ice melts completely.
More Ideas
Make a big ice sailboat.
A big sailboat will need a larger block of ice. Use a large plastic container to freeze the ice. If the container does not have a lid, add a strip of cardboard to hold the drinking straw in place.
Punch a hole at the center of a 2-inch wide strip of cardboard. Position the strip at the center of the container. Bend the cardboard where it touches the top edge of the container. Tape the ends of the cardboard in place. Place a drinking straw through the hole.
Create colored ice.
Add several drops of food coloring to the water in Step 2 to come up with colored ice boats.
While sailing your sailboats, watch the melting ice color your tub of water—a fun way to observe and learn about colors!
