Get ready for some amazing guest bloggers!
Urban High School of San Francisco partnered with Nia House for a service learning project. These bloggers met with Nia House parents to learn more about our school community and then tailored blogs just for you!
GUTTER RACERS :
environmentally friendly and fun
By Cooper Makhijani and Rylan Waterman
Don’t let those disposable masks go to waste!
Making boats out of found objects is a fun way to introduce reusing materials and “trash.” Teaching kids to reuse waste is a valuable lesson, and will help ensure the planet they grow up on remains beautiful. Gutter racers can be easily made out of recycled materials like plastic bottles, aluminum cans, string, paper, and more. Items can be found around the house and around the neighborhood. This is also a good way to encourage kids to get out of the house.
Gutter boats are a really fun activity for parents and kids to do together. One of my (Ryan) favorite childhood memories was of making gutter boats with my dad. In my situation, my dad taught me basic woodworking skills, and we built a gutter boat using my dad’s toolkit. This experience was super fun, especially because my dad had built gutter boats with his dad as a child, and for me it was a fun and easy way to connect with him. Teaching your kids to make things will instill creativity and an experimental mindset in them.
Plastic bottles and pieces of light driftwood can be used to create a hull for your boat. Straws, and sticks can be used to form a mast, and a cut out piece of a chips bag can be used as a sail. Plastic water bottles can form pontoons, and a pencil with paper on it can be a sail. Experiment and play around with different materials and configurations, try to make a boat that can hold a lot of weight, or one that goes faster. Show your child your ideas and let them show you theirs.
Here is a basic outline you can follow if you want to build a gutter boat
(Try to experiment and get creative with materials):
Find a base of your boat (We recommend pool noodles, water bottles, or other large light items that would float)
Create a small hole where you want the top of your boat to be. It should be the exact size of your mast (Probably the easiest type of mast would be straw)
Feed the straw through the hole in the boat.
Using strong adhesive (Duck tape, hot glue, etc.) secure the straw to the boat.
Get your sail (Paper, old cloth, plastic bags) and tape it to the mast. Alternatively, you can cut two holes in the bottom and top of the sail and feed the straw through.
Remember to grab your boat at the end of the gutter so you don’t end up littering!
