Popsicle stick catapult. Lego Star Wars figures, optional.
This is a great project with a really simple design, for those of you with kiddos out there who like to build things. This catapult is made with popsicle sticks and thin ribbon, plus a bottle cap to put the objects you will be flinging. The bottle cap is attached with an adhesive strip, but hot glue would work just as well.
The Creekside Dad tasked Firefly, age 8, with designing his own catapult. First, they looked at pictures of catapults in our history book, and discussed the basics of the design: a base, a flexible or tension-filled arm, a container to hold what you are trying to send flying. Used to designing things with Legos, this proved a bit challenging for Firefly. Legos are not flexible. He tried Kinex. A very good choice, as they can bend, but our limited Kinex collection didn’t have what was needed for the base.
Finally, they found a little inspiration, proving that Pinterest is useful to men as well as women. (I knew this, of course, but my husband doesn’t get the whole Pinterest thing.)
I like how this was a whole process. Even thought the first two building mechanisms, Legos and Kinex, didn’t work, Firefly stuck it out, through his frustrations, and the end result was something fun and functional.
We did this as part of our ancient history studies of Rome.
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My son would love this, we need to give this a try!
What a great idea to use craft sticks and rubber bands. We’ve making a catapult with a wooden peg before but the peg ended up falling apart. Will have to try this version. Thanks for sharing.
This is such a fun idea! I think my kids would have a lot of fun with it. I can just picture my son’s reaction to it now.
Pinning it.
Awesome!! Definitely do-able for us and I’ll be following those Pinterest boards for sure… they are awesome!!
What an awesome learning experience for him! My guys (5 years old and 34 years old, too – lol) would love making one of these together. Thanks for sharing it with the Weekly Kids Co-Op!
This is a great idea! And I love when gets stick it out and figure out a solution.
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Looks like a great design! Thanks for sharing with Learning Laboratory =)
my daughter loves this thanks e will try these.
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