Paper Boat Races (with A Free "sink Or Float" Worksheet)

My little girl loves Curious George. Given how mischievous she is, it didn’t surprise me when she started to love the cute little monkey character. We always come home with a handful of Curious George books each time we visit the library and this time she chose a Level 1 reader “The Boat Show” by H. A. Rey.

At the end of the book we were really excited to see instructions on how to make a paper boat and a “sink or float” activity idea. The whole thing turned out to be totally spur of the moment but we got out some paper to make some boats and it ended up being such a fun afternoon activity with all of my kids.

Before folding our paper boats we personalized them by coloring designs all over our paper (my daughter and I used pink paper) and once they were folded, we all added stickers to them.

I emptied out a big under the bed storage container I had and we took it out on the slanted driveway, filled it with water and after a 3-2-1 countdown we set our boats out to sail.

As you can see there was a clear winner. Those clover stickers must have given him extra luck! 🙂 The paper boats only lasted 2 races before they were completely saturated. If you want it to last longer you’ll have to each make several different boats.

To continue our activity we also gathered the household items listed in the back of the book and had a little “sink or float” lesson. We all guessed whether the items would sink or float and then put them in the water one at a time to see the results. I made a free printable if you want to complete this activity too. We have a version with the household items listed or a blank worksheet to write in your own items.

Download the “Does it sink or float?” template HERE.