Beyond the Book: "Boats Go" by Steve Light

 Have you ever woken up at 7:30 AM to the sounds of your three year old singing "Oh, sole mio!" from his bed? I have! And do you know why? Because at the grande finale of Boats Go, another fabulously illustrated and alliterated book by Steve Light, we learn that this is the sound of a gondola traveling the scenic canals of Venice, Italy. S picked out this book for our most recent story stretcher and after a family vacation with a hotel room view of a marina, I knew he would love our boat-themed afternoon together.



We began our story stretcher by reading the book (no fewer than three times--S really likes the book and once Y woke up from his nap, S wanted to make sure that he got to hear it, too) and sharing a tasty theme related snack:

edible sail boats made with apple slices, pretzel sticks and cheese

Next it was time for our letter review: Bb for boat! I brought out a mysterious backpack filled with objects from around the house and a basket proudly donning a red letter B. S's mission, should he choose to accept it, would be to put the objects beginning with the letter Bb into the basket, and those not beginning with the letter into the "bay" (our hardwood floor).

Our basket was brimming with a book, a baby, a bottle, a banana, a ball, a balloon, a bear, bread and, of course, a boat... I like using a variety of activities to introduce beginning sounds and letter recognition. We do a lot of crafts, songs and action rhymes, early writing practice and games for a multi-sensory approach to learning letters here.

While we were on the topic of sorting, it was time for another sorting activity of things that go in water and things that do NOT go in water:

I created a simple chart on the computer and provided a selection of stickers for sorting. Our water side was swimming with seals and ducks, fish and turtles, watercraft of all kinds and sea life galore...

 Both boys were ready for some playtime now and I was all set up for some great parallel water play in our living room. Yes I am crazy brave enough to allow my kids to play in water on our living room rug--but just in case, I did put a towel down and only a shallow amount of water in the sensory bins. You could definitely reserve water play for another indoor surface (like the tub) or outdoors!

Y LOVED playing across from S, and mostly favored throwing boats overboard for S to fetch. S got a kick out of this. Once Y got tired and had his next nap installment, S and I were ready for a STEM challenge:

Using a variety of recycled plastic containers, foil, cups, straws, cardboard tubes and scrap paper as well as some scissors and masking tape, we got busy building boats! We observed the containers we were choosing and that they had holes in the bottom. I asked what might happen with the holes in the water. S said that water would go in. That's when I introduced a little bit of rhyming alongside some science: a boat should float! Busily we built and taped and tried different techniques of creating some recycled sailboats to test. S needed a little help with some of the taping, but picked out all of his own parts and design. On my sail, I wrote a big M for the first letter of my name. On S's sail, he asked for help writing his first letter! It was almost time to test them out.

First we tested the boats on their own, with nothing inside. S quickly discovered that water does indeed flow through the holes on the bottom of these containers and that his boat should float but was sinking! He grabbed a piece of tin foil to wrap around the bottom. Smart kid!

 I brought down a dish of pennies as our test subject. When conducting an experiment, you should change only one thing from your control subject. We chose to use pennies but you could use another small object so long as they are all the same size, shape, weight, etc. We observed that a penny dropped into the water on its own sinks right to the bottom. Next we observed that a penny dropped into our successfully floating sailboats does not sink! We wanted to see how many pennies our boats could hold before succumbing to the weight and sinking to the bottom.

There are a lot of great boat related STEM activities you could do along with this book or with a watercraft or transportation theme.
Got a Lego lover? Try out the same experiment as above, but build your boat with Legos:

General sink and float experiments can teach about and demonstrate which materials float in water and which sink. Add some salt to the water to show how buoyancy is different between the ocean and freshwater. Make boats by crafting a pouch out of tinfoil and do "penny test" on those! If you've got a budding engineer on your hands and a bit of ingenuity, you won't have to fight to get him into his next bath!

My own budding engineer also has an artsy side and a love for dramatic play. We were ready to set out to sea--but first we needed some spectacular sails! A bit of blue paint, some easel paper and some foam puzzle pieces and cookie cutters in boat shapes for stamping were just the right tools required to get the job done. S had a lot of fun stamping and decorating some paper to use for sails. Meanwhile, I had already prepped another sheet myself and allowed it time to dry so his grande voyage would not have to wait for paint to dry.

I brought out our laundry basket-turned sail boat and placed it on the wild waters of our living room rug. Captain S decided it needed a steering wheel and used his tinker toys to construct one! (I thought this was a brilliant idea!)

Almost ready to set sail...

S had a great fish tale about sailing in the ocean to the distant lands of "the basement [we don't even have a basement], Seemee, and Ahgo."

"I'm driving my boat!"

 Our laundry shall have to wait because S is very busy in this boat and there are many oceans to cross. Until then, we wish you all smooth sailing and happy playing!