Art Academy Projects

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Thanksgiving Mayflower Ships

Making Mayflower Ships is a fun, easy way to decorate your table for Thanksgiving. You can use any size of construction paper you want. If you want to use the ships as place cards, use a smaller size. If you want a really large one, use a larger size. We used 9” x 12” construction paper for the ship’s hull.

Take a piece of brown construction paper and fold it in half; not from side to side so its skinny but fold from the top to the bottom of the paper. Draw the letter U on your paper with the folded edge being the top part of the U. Holding both pieces of paper together, cut out the U. The folded edge should still be folded and should not have been cut. If you open the cut edges a little bit, it should be able to stand on a flat surface. This is the hull of your ship.

Cut two small holes at the top of the paper on the folded edge.

Push a straw through each hole. Open the side of the hull that’s on top. You should see the straws. Tape them down onto the brown paper so they stay in place.

Using a white piece of construction paper, draw a triangle on it. Cut out the triangle. Then, cut the triangle in half. These are your masts. Place one on each straw and tape it in place around the straw.

Now, open your hull edges up so it stands on a flat surface, or a table. Congratulations, your Mayflower Ship is completed!

To take your art project one step further, we added blue glitter glue to the bottom of the hull to make it look like it was in the water. What else can you do to make it your Mayflower ship? Anything goes if you can imagine it.

We hope you enjoyed your art project!

Courtesy Art Academy, North Suburban YMCA