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Take your paper airplanes to new heights by making a motorized launcher for them.Build more awesome electronic vehicles, all from one convenient kit with a <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/us/store/dp/make-it-move-electronics-set/4500" target="_self">Make-It-Move Electronics Set</a> from the <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/store" target="_self">KiwiCo Store</a>!

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Hot glue a flat rubber band around the outside of a wooden wheel. Repeat for the second wheel. 

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Create a small plastic circle using the pushpin. Push the pushpin into the lid and trace around it with a marker. Repeat again to make a second circle. 

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Cut out one of the small circles and hot glue it to the center of the wooden wheel. Repeat for the other wheel. 

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Connect the battery leads to the loose wire leads. 

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Connect the alligator clips to the free end of the leads.

Using the same colored leads and alligator clips will help you to remember what goes where.

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Place batteries in the battery holders. Then, close them.

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Connect the free ends of the alligator clips to the motor as seen in the photo. 

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Test the motors! Place each wheel onto the top of either motor and turn the battery holders on. Make sure that the wheels are spinning in opposite directions.

If the wheels are not spinning in opposite directions, switch the position of the alligator clips on the motor.

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Disconnect the motors from the alligator clips. Then, hot glue the motors to the smallest wooden blocks so that the motors are flush to the top of the blocks. 

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Fill the hole in the center of the wheel with hot glue so that it is as stable as possible. Scrape any excess hot glue off the top with a scrap piece of paper or cardboard.

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Mark the base ½” from either short side and 4 ¼” from the bottom. Then, hot glue the mounted motors on your mark. 

Note: The bottom is the end of the base closest to the mounted motors. 

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Mark the base ¼” from either short side and 2 ¾” from the bottom. Also, mark the base ¼” from either short side and 3 ¼” from the top. Then, hot glue the the wooden poles on your marks. 

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Paint the wooden runways so that they look like a real runway or design them however you like! This is where your plane will “take off” from. 

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Hot glue the runways to the poles.

Note: Make sure to  leave about ¼” of space between the wheels and the runway. 

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Connect the free ends of the alligator clips to the motors. Then, test them to make sure that the wheels are spinning in opposite directions.

If the wheels are not spinning in opposite directions, first check that the alligator clips on a single motor are coming from the same battery pack. If the wheels are still not spinning in opposite directions, switch the position of the alligator clips on the motor.

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Now you’re ready to launch some paper airplanes! Load a paper airplane into your launcher and watch it fly away. Try angling your launcher by placing some books underneath it and see what happens!

You may want to have a friend hold down your airplane launcher when it’s on.

Paper airplanes work just like regular passenger planes and fighter jets: by redirecting air to keep themselves airborne. As long as a plane is moving quickly, its wings will redirect a lot of air downwards, which generates an equal upwards force (lift). This lift is enough to bear the weight of the plane against the pull of gravity. Your paper airplane launcher is effective because it gives the paper airplanes a lot of speed, and therefore a lot of lift — plenty to keep the planes aloft for lengthy trips around a room (or until they hit something!)

dc hobby motor (2)

wire leads (4)

alligator clips (4)

battery pack (2)

aa batteries (4)

wooden wheel (2) - 2" diameter

rubber band (2) - flat

hot glue / hot glue gun

container lid - plastic

pushpins

Markers

wooden base (1) - 3/4" x 5 1/2" x 16 1/2"

wooden blocks (2) - 2” x 1” x ¾”

wooden poles (4) - 3 ¾” x ⅜” x ⅜”

wooden runway (2) - 12”x 1 ½” x ¼”

paint & paint brush - yellow and black

paper airplane

Paper Airplane Launcher

art project

playdate activities

painting

summer fun

This summer, we decided to try our hand at making colorful chalk paint! This easy recipe only requires three ingredients and your imagination.

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In a large bowl, fill it with one part water and one part corn starch. We started with two cups of each, but you can increase or decrease this amount as needed.  Our first batch was a little runny so we ended up mixing 2 cup water to 2.5 cups cornstarch for our  second batch.

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Pour some into a squeeze bottle, leaving some extra space for mixing in watercolor.

You can also use paint cups, but we found squeeze bottles to be extra fun!

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Add liquid watercolor until the mixture reaches the vibrancy you'd like. Shake well to make sure the coloring is fully incorporated.

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Repeat steps 2-3 until to create a whole rainbow of chalk paint colors!

Squirt a little paint on a driveway or sidewalk to test out the paint. Our paint washed away with water, but you might want to test your paint on a small area first. Try making colorful patterns, drawing different scenes, or starting a round of hopscotch! Can you think of any other games to play with the chalk paint?

If you are storing the paint for later use, the cornstarch will settle at the bottom of the bottle so make sure to shake well before squeezing!

corn starch

liquid watercolors

water

squeeze bottles 

large bowl 

whisk

Chalk Paints

game

Practice rhyming and teamwork as you and your children go on a rhyming treasure hunt! 

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Note: For this activity, the parents make the treasure hunt cards and the parents hide the cards. 
To get ready for this treasure hunt, draw 5 or  6 picture cards and figure out what your treasure will be. I hid a snack, but you could also hide ingredients for a fun craft or a board game to play together.   

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You will want to think of simple places to hide your clues. I hid clues by a shoe (the clue was a picture of glue), in the sink (the clue was pink), on the chair (the clue was a picture of hair), on the stairs (the clue was a picture of two bears), near a spoon (the clue was a picture of a moon), and on a bed (the clue was red). Other ideas you could use: door - store, bath - math, plant - ant, bag - tag, backpack - black. 

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Hiding the clues was the hardest part, but worth all of the fun we had! I started with the first clue (it was a picture of a moon). I put that clue aside to be the first one to start the hunt, but I knew that would lead them to the spoons so I put the next clue in the spoon drawer (it was the color red). That clue would lead them to the bed so I put the next clue there etc. until the last clue leads to where you hid the snack. 

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I told the kids we were going on a rhyming treasure hunt to find their snack. I gave them the first clue and said "That is a picture of a moon. We will find the next clue somewhere that rhymes with moon." We rhymed together aloud (moon, noon, roon, soon, spoon, etc.) until they figured it out. Spoon! So we ran to the silverware drawer. It was harder for them than I thought it would be which gave us a great chance to use teamwork. We went through the clues together and celebrated when we found the treasure. They loved it so much they wanted to do it again. 

index card paper

special treat

Rhyming Treasure Hunt

party game

I must admit, I am a bit of a paint chip fanatic.  All the beautiful colors--all the possibilities (though I can't really imagine having the guts to paint a room anything like these).  I was in the paint store recently picking up some paint for a touch-up in our bathroom, and brought some extra paint chips home* for some fun with the kids.  I had seen this cute idea for a Paint Chip Scavenger Hunt, and thought that sounded like a great activity for indoor or outdoor fun. (*Note: I don't really think of this as unethical--they are FREE after all, and I'm sure the paint companies provide them with gazillions, but I made sure not to wipe them out of any of the colors.)

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I chose the paint chips with 4-5 shades, and decided to cut them into individual colors.  I also went ahead and punched holes in them so we could gather them together easily. I threaded a rubber band through, so the kids could carry them around. ( In the end, it seemed easier to not have them all connected--so if I do it again, I'll skip the hole punch step.)

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After that, it's just off to the races. It was a rainy day outside, so S just explored the kitchen, finding all the items she could that matched her set.  You could make all kinds of fun games out of it: set a timer to see how many different colors you can find, make a chart of how many items of each color you can find, play paint chip bingo!  We kept it pretty simple today, but I know we'll come back to this again.

We were frankly a little amazed at the everyday items that matched our brilliant colors.  The exercise was a great way to open our eyes to the technicolor world we live in!

Again, if you're looking for an activity to occupy your kiddos for 15 minutes or so while you move dinner along (as I always am!), this is a good one.  You could also have a great time with this outdoors, as well.

I think we can come up with some more ideas for how to use these paint swatches, so stay tuned!

paint chip samples

Paint Chip Scavenger Hunt

frog

outdoor project

Frogs or turtles--who will land on the lily pads and win? 

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Twelve milk caps or water gallon caps will make 6 game pieces. Glue the bottom sides of two caps together. I quickly found out that they don't really stick together unless there is something in between them...so cut a circle of cardboard or craft foam to put in between each pair of caps. 

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After the glue between the caps dries, draw details on top of the bottle caps and glue on googly eyes. The red bottle caps were our turtles. The frogs were made from the clear bottle caps with a circle of green craft foam stuck to the top. 

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Using sidewalk chalk or sidewalk chalk paint, draw a pond with 3 lily pads. 

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This is how it looked when we were finished. (It took longer than I thought it would for the kids to color it in!)

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One player pushes the turtles across the pond and the other player pushes the frogs across the pond. The player to land the most animals on the lily pads wins! For a challenge, assign different point values to each lily pad. 

milk caps

sidewalk chalk

googly eyes (optional)

glue

Frog Pond Game

easy craft

craft

Flying saucers, spaceships, aliens, creatures from Mars...we love them all! So fascinating and fun for any age to imagine and pretend. This flying saucer craft was a ton of fun for my kids as it was flown all over the yard and landed in many parts of our house. At one point my kids were the aliens that came off the saucer and that made for some great laughs! Get your paper plates ready for an afternoon that is far-out-there fun!

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Got paper plates? Then you got yourself a saucer. First have your child glue both plates together. I always use tacky glue for these kinds of projects. It is so much stronger than school glue and saves me from dealing with little frustrated artists.

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Time to give that saucer the silver shine that we all imagine a flying saucer to have. Silver paint worked perfect for this. I bet you could even wrap it in some foil for a real shine!

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Any opportunity for glitter use and my daughter is on it! (Actually, I kind of love glitter myself, too...) The glitter was out before I knew it. This is definitely optional, though. We were outside and swept up the glitter easily.

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For our little alien critters, we used two large pom-poms and added some googly eyes. A foil ball would be a pretty cute alien as well. 

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My kids just loved this part. They decided this was a mom and dad alien! We added them right to the top and set our saucer out to dry. 

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Once dry this was such a great invitation for my children to run around the yard with saucer in tote pretending to be aliens and having a space adventure. 

paper plate

paint

gems

pom-poms

googly eyes

glitter

Flying Saucer

Aim and Shoot! Knock all of the ping pong balls off with water to win! 

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All you need for this wild and wet game is a block of styrofoam, golf tees, ping pong balls (or something similar), and a water shooter or water gun. 

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Have your child push the golf tees into the styrofoam and balance a ping pong ball on each golf tee. This was his favorite part! 

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Shoot! How many can you knock over at once? So fun! The kids took turns shooting the balls and balancing the balls back onto the tees. What a simple and exciting water game! 

17 easy backyard games projects for kids

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