Lighthouse and ship

Keeping a few old boxes, cardboard tubes and used pudding pots can always come in useful on a rainy day...

You will need:

- glue, sticky tape, paint and...

For the lighthouse -

- a long cardboard tube (such as from kitchen paper towel or similar)

- a box of a suitable size to make a small 'island'

- a see-through pudding pot

- tin foil

- green tissue paper and/or brown paper

For the tanker -

- a long box or box lid

- a small box or packet

- a loo roll

- coloured paper

The Lighthouse

1. Start by painting the tube that will become the lighthouse.  You can go with traditional stripes (black and white or red and white) or make it as colourful as you like.  Leave this to dry.

2. Prepare the 'island'.  Depending on your resources, you could either make this a rocky island or one with some grass on it as well.  Either glue green or brown paper onto it, or paint it green or brown on top.

3.  When the paint is dry, glue two strips or squares of tin foil to the top of the tube (to represent the light).  The pudding pot should be able to fit snug onto the top and stay there.

4. Either tape the lighthouse onto the island or, to make it more secure, cut all round the bottom of the edge of the tube to make it 'fray' (see the bottom of the tanker ship's funnel in the above picture). Tape the lighthouse down using these frayed bits to secure it. 

5. Scrunch up green tissue paper round the lighthouse to cover the tape and glue it down.  Use more green tissue paper, scrunched up to make bushes.  You could even add trees (loo paper rolls painted brown, with green tissue paper scrunched up at the top).  Alternatively you could scrunch up brown paper to make rocks round the lighthouse and the island.

The tanker

1. Paint the loo roll tube black (or whatever colour you wish).  Leave this to dry.

2. Cover the outside of the long box or lid (if it's a long box, cut one large side away and tape the sides to secure them) with coloured paper.  Alternatively you could paint the box.  Stick circles down both sides to represent portholes.

3. Cover the top and sides of the smaller box.  Glue it down inside the larger box.

4. Cut into the bottom of the funnel all the way round.  Press these frayed flaps back and tape across them to secure the funnel to the roof of the small box.  You could even glue a ball of cotton wool to the top of the funnel to represent smoke or steam.

Try making other kinds of boats!

Almost any kind of small box will do.  Either cut one large side away (securing the sides when you do, because otherwise the box will collapse on you) or use a box lid.  Cut a square or triangle of paper.  Punch 2 holes in the paper - one at the top and the other at the bottom.  Thread a straw through the holes.  Stick some blu-tak or modelling clay in the middle of the boat and press the straw down into it - making a mast and sail!

What other boat and ship designs can you come up with?