Babies (in Boats) in the River

In today's story, a small village is confronted with a big problem: their river is full of babies! Now, you too can have a river full of a baby, but this little one has a boat, because I honestly felt pretty bad for the babies in the story being without boats.

I used a paper plate because it's the right thickness and great to draw on, but you could also use the blank side of a piece of paperboard from a cereal box if you don't have any paper plates!

-paper plate (or paperboard)

-markers or crayons

-construction paper

-scissors

-popsicle stick

-white glue

Take your paper plate and draw a river! This will work best if you cover about half of the plate with water, so that your baby or boat has enough room to move around. I drew a wide sky above my river. What will you draw?

Take your scissors and carefully poke an end somewhere in the middle of your river. Use that as an entry point to cut a slit in the plate. Don't cut off the entire bottom, though! Leave at least an inch of plate on each side of the cut.

Grab a piece of construction paper. Draw a keyhole shape, two or three inches tall. Add a face and cut it out.

Take a different color of construction paper, and lay the baby on one corner with the bottom of the shape lined up with the corner itself. Cut out a square around the baby. This will be the baby's blanket.

Put a dot of glue on the back of the baby, and stick them down in the center of the blanket. Then, add a little bit of glue on the front. Fold the little corner at the bottom up to cover the baby's feet. Then, fold one side over the baby and stick it down in the glue. Fold the other side over, adding more glue if you need to. Let the baby dry.

Draw a boat shape and a triangle on the construction paper and cut them out.

Draw a line of glue up the side of the triangle and on the boat a little off center. Line the popsicle stick up and glue it down. Let it dry.

Stick your boat up through the slit in the plate. You can move the boat back and forth on the river by moving the popsicle stick. It's kind of like a puppet!

Take a dot of glue and stick the baby to the deck of the boat.