Straw Rocket Craft
Looking to fuel a child’s interest in space and all its wonders? Kids will have a blast making these fun and simple construction paper straw rockets. Real rockets use chemical reactions to create enormous amounts of thrust and propel heavy loads to orbit at thousands of miles per hour. But all you need to send these straw rockets flying is a little puff of air. Let your kids’ imaginations soar with an art and science project rolled into one!
Straw Rocket Supplies
- Colored construction paper
- Pencil
- Scissors
- Tape
- Straw
- Pencil
- Drinking straw
How to Make a Straw Rocket
Step one: Draw the different parts of a rocket ship on colored paper. We went with a nose cone, body, wings, window, engine, and flames.
Step two: Cut out all the parts of the rocket ship and a 2” x 3” rectangular piece of paper for the straw compartment.
Step three: Assemble the rocket ship by taping the parts together.
Step four: Create the straw compartment by rolling the rectangular piece of paper around a pencil. Tape it closed to form a tube.
Step five: Pinch one end of the tube shut and close it off with tape. Make sure no air escapes from the taped end.
Step six: Tape the tube to the back of the rocket ship and insert the straw. Launch the rocket by blowing into the straw.
Time to Play!
Once you’ve built your straw rockets, it’s time to play. Check out these fun ideas for mixing science and playtime.
- See who can launch their straw rocket the highest, who can make theirs go the fastest, and whose rocket can stay suspended in the air the longest.
- Encourage kids to experiment by making different rockets with varying lengths and widths, or launching them with straws of different sizes.
- Observe how changing the shape of the straw rockets affects their speed and travel path.
- Write down your observations.
