Cowes, in the Isle of Wight, hosts the largest and most prestigious annual sailing regatta in the world. This year, from 7 to 14 August, up to 1,000 boats will compete, ranging from exciting high-tech racing machines to classic day boats. It's the ideal time to lift anchor and set sail at your club with a summer boating theme.
There'll be plenty of media coverage during Cowes Week, and you can also visit the regatta's website at www.cowes.co.uk to keep track of the events and to see pictures of the racing vessels. Provide big boxes along with a host of suitable junk and scrap, and children could be inspired to build a large-scale boat of their own to play in. Perhaps they would like to create a new, futuristic design, or copy a boat they have seen - they can even use them as props in an original playground game.
Original ideas
To play the Wavers and Throwers game, children prepare by cutting wave shapes from stiff card (about 75cm square). They then split into two teams, each with a boat as their base. The boats should face each other several metres apart. Half of each team become 'wavers' equipped with the waves, and half become 'throwers' in possession of several soft tennis balls each (or tightly scrunched newspaper balls). Each team's 'wavers' spread out in front of their boat, and the 'throwers' stand a few paces in front of their team-mates. Each team's 'throwers' must simultaneously try to score points by getting their balls into the opposition's boat (throwers may move around but mustn't encroach on the other team's space - you may need to draw a line), while the 'wavers' attempt to defend the boat, deflecting balls with their cardboard waves -throwers can make use of these deflected balls.
Excitement builds in this fast-paced game as balls whiz overhead. At the end of play (a set time or when the balls run out), children empty their boats, revealing the score.
In the Don't Rock the Boat game, children sit down, one behind the other, in teams. Each team should be a few metres apart and must have an even number of members - for the purpose of explanation we will imagine there are six players in a team. Playworkers draw a chalk boat shape around each team (so it looks as though players are sitting in a boat), leaving a gap of roughly 25cm between the children and the outline.
To start the game, a playworker calls, 'All aboard!' The player at the front of the boat (in position one) must stand up, turn around and begin to make their way to the back of the boat, walking on the port side (left).
Simultaneously, the person at the back of the boat (position six) makes their way to the front up the starboard side (right). Children must hurry, but also go carefully and not step over the chalk edge to avoid 'rocking the boat'. If one of the players does rock the boat, both will have to freeze for a five-second penalty. The two players eventually swap seats.
Then players in positions two and five do the same thing, followed by the children in positions three and four. The game can stop here, or players can race back again to their original seats. The first team back must shout, 'Land Ahoy!' in unison when they are all seated.
Old favourites
Cowes regatta began back in 1826, but has maintained its popularity throughout the years - so why not revive some traditional games too, alongside the original ones suggested? Battleships is an old favourite strategy game requiring just a pencil and paper, but if you don't already know it, you can learn by playing online at www.online.bat/sh.html - if one of the children can't teach you, that is! After a bit of practice, children might like to organise a Battleships tournament.
Captain's Coming is a traditional playground game that would also fit the bill -it's still a staple at many clubs - see 'Indoor and Outdoor Games', Out of School, March 2002 if you're not familiar with it. Jaws is a popular parachute game - all players kneel or stand in a circle. One child is appointed the shark, and they go underneath the parachute, where they 'swim' around for a bit, while the group makes stormy waves with the parachute, simultaneously humming the well-known film's theme music! The shark chooses a victim by tagging them - the victim then sinks (usually screaming!) under the parachute to also become a shark. The game continues until the sharks outnumber the players.
Origami boats
These origami boats will actually float. They are so easy to make that when children have followed the instructions once, most will be able to experiment by adapting the design, enabling them to make boats to their own specifications.
Children take a rectangle of card, and draw a circle at either end. They then draw a dot in the centre of each circle. Next, they draw a straight line from the top of the first circle to the top of the second circle, and a second line joining up the bottoms of the circles. This gives a cylinder like shape. The sides of the cylinder are creased upwards about 5mm in from the edge on either side, creating the sides of the boat. At one end, children cut a slit into the drawn circle, stopping at the dot. Next, children overlap the edges (as they would if making a cone shape) and stick them together with sticky-tape, making a curved end for the boat. The process is repeated at the other end, and children are ready to set sail.
Varying the sizes of the circles and the distance they are away from each other will alter the length of the boat - circles can even overlap to make a tiny boat or be further apart and small in size to make a thin barge. Two circles at each end will make a square cargo carrier, or three circles in a triangle will make a speedboat, and so on - there are lots of combinations to try.
Children can have their own boat race in the water tray, blowing their boats along with a straw. Cowes is the longest running annual regatta in the world -why not see who can win the race for the longest running boat, by seeing which one will travel the furthest on just one blow?
Jelly vessels
To make jelly vessels, children can work in pairs, sharing half of an orange between them. First, they squeeze and retain the juice, then scrape out the remaining orange, so they are left with just the empty orange peel half. Orange jelly is made up to a firm consistency according to the directions on the packet, with the squeezed juice replacing some of the cold water for flavour. The jelly is poured into the orange half and left in the fridge to set. While it sets, children can each make a sail with their name on it from a triangle of clean paper, which they then tape to a cocktail stick. Next, they pipe a decorative wave pattern on to a plate with icing.
When the jelly is set, the orange half is cut (by an adult if appropriate) with a sharp knife into two boat-shaped quarters, one for each child, and placed on the plates. Children add their cocktail stick sails for the final flourish. Alternatively, clubs could make banana split long boats - make the split up as usual but challenge the children to come up with a healthy food that could be used to represent oars - long strips of carrot for instance - and place them decoratively at intervals along the banana.
Surf safari
People boating for pleasure often like to enjoy summer water-sports from their boat, so why not hold a surf safari too, by making cool surfboards from large pieces of card and decorating them in the latest surfing styles? You could borrow a real board for inspiration, and use it as a template.
Children at my club loved role playing with their boards - they pretended to 'ride the waves', doing stunts and moves to Beach Boys music! They also liked strolling around with them under their arms!
The finished boards made a great summer display too, with the addition of the cardboard waves from the earlier game, and of course, a few happy surfers.
