This craft is an awesome way to utilize avocados in a creative and playful way. Avocados are pretty fascinating. And who would have guessed that their skin could be used to make a boat?
In fact, while crafting, you and your kids might want to take a moment to learn some fun facts about this fascinating vegetable:
🥑 Avocados 🥑
- Avocados grow on trees.
- Because of their seed, avocados are considered fruit by botanists.
- Because of their veggie-like nutrients, avocados are considered vegetables by nutritionists & the USDA.
- Mexico produces more avocados than any other country.
- An avocado contains more potassium than a banana.
My kids loved seeing the inside of an avocado and setting sail while I worked on our meal. A word of advice: this craft works best with dry avocado skins, so consider putting the skins aside a few hours before starting the craft. This craft is paired with our Southwest Quesadillas Recipe.
💡Overview💡
Featured Ingredient: Avocado
Corresponding Recipe: Southwest Quesadillas
Skills supported: Fine motor (coloring, cutting, folding, taping/gluing), following instructions, math (composing shapes), problem-solving
✂supplies✂
- Medium size bowl of water
- Avocado skins
- Straws (ideally the kind that bend)
- Kid-friendly scissors
- Square piece of thick paper (we used 3x3)
- Markers (my kids like Crayola Super Tips for coloring thin/fine lines)
- Tape or glue
📝instructions📝
Consider setting up the craft before cooking so that your kids can get to work right away.
- Fill a medium-sized bowl with water and set aside.
- Remove a sliced avocado's flesh and seed and dry the skins. It’s important for the avocado to be dry so that the straw can be properly taped down.
- Cut a straw in half to make the boat’s mast. *
- Color a small, square piece of paper. You can pick the size. This will be the boat’s sail.
- Fold the square in half diagonally and tape it around the straw.
- Bend the top of the straw and tape the bent end to the inside and bottom of the skin. If the avocado is still moist, consider taping a small scrap of paper to the bottom of the avocado and then fastening the straw to the paper.
- Place your boat in the bowl of water and set sail! You may need to play around with the straw’s placement to give the boat the most balance. Consider adding figurines like Lego people to the boat.
Note: *For toddlers especially, these tasks may require adult supervision and/or assistance.
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