A few weeks ago I was looking at a handful of corks and wondering what to do with them. Thats when I remembered how well cork floats!

Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures of the building process, but its simple enough… and part of the fun is the experimentation process to get it all to hold together! Scroll to the bottom of the post for a picture of what the rafts look like and a video that shows how surprisingly sturdy they are…

This will provide entertainment at least twice: first building the rafts and later playing with them.

CORK BOAT RAFT TUTORIAL:

You’ll need: Corks, some string (we used crochet yarn), sticks and something to make sails with (reporposed foam, plastic or even tree leaves will work). And of course, your little ones as helpers!

1. Tie the string to one of the corks. Tightly!
2. Grab a 2nd cork. Place it alongside the 1st cork and start winding/wrapping the string around both corks, use 8 and 0 shapes… Tightly!
3. Now get corks 3 and 4, using the same string repeat step 2 with these corks. Every now and then wrap the string back around the first 2 corks. Keep alternating. Tightly.
4. Run a few loops between the 2 pairs of corks. Tightly.
5. When everything is holding together, tie off the string.
6. Cut a stick to the size you want for a mast. Then just push it in where the 4 corks meet.
7. Cut your sail to shape and add 2 small holes. Slide it in place on the mast.
8. Test your boats floats upright. Adjust if needed.

Hopefully this makes some sense… Looking at the picture below should help. Its raft science, not rocket science!

Now take those rafts for a spin at your local fountain or pond… and have fun.

Our rafts have been played with at the fountain, in the bathtub, several sinks and assorted buckets. Ila still hasn’t tired of playing with them!