The origami boat is a fun craft for older grade school children to make for a number of themes including: Columbus Day, learning about Japan, Transportation, Oceans and Bouyancy.

And for some Sunday School themes including Jonah and the Whale, Noah, Jesus Walks on Water or Jesus and the Fisherman themed lesson.

Yes, the boat will really float, but as the paper gets saturated with water, it will sink and be ruined. This can actually start a neat discussion about what made the boat float to begin with and then what made it sink.

Fold the paper (or the 1/2 sheet of newspaper) in half
Fold down each side to make triangles
At the bottom fold the top strip upward on the red line.
Fold the two small triangles on the left and on the right backwards to make them disappear.
Turn the paper over and fold the other lower strip upwards. You have formed the well known paper hat. (if you're finding the origami too challenging with a group of kids, you can always just stop here and wear your hats as sailor hats!!)
If you're feeling brave enough to continue on to make a boat: Turn the hat 90 degrees and open it so you're looking inside the part you would wear on your head. The thumbs must be inside.
Lay the upper and the lower parts on each other so it looks like a diamond (see the image to the right).
Fold the lower front triangle upwards on the red line.
so it looks like:
Turn the paper over and fold the other triangle up. It basically looks like the hat without the brim this time
Open the hat again and put the upper part on the lower one to make a diamond shape again
Pull the upper corners of the triangles in direction of the arrows. As you pull these corners you'll see the boat forming before your eyes.
Stretch the boat both to the right and left, and then separate it slightly from underneath so it can float.
Printable version of these instructions

DLTK's Bible Crafts for Kids Origami Boat

Printable version of these instructions

DLTK's Bible Crafts for Kids
Origami Boat