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Turn office supplies into a mini catapult, then try a pom-pom launching contest with a friend!

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Gather the materials you need to make your DIY catapult desk toy. 

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Wrap a rubber band around the middle of the binder clip. If it’s loose, keep wrapping it around until it’s tight. I had to wrap mine around three times.

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Switch the arms, so the one that was up is down and the one that was down is up.

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Loop a rubber band around the lowered arm and through itself. Pull it tight to attach the band to the arm.

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Pull the other end of the rubber band through the raised arm. Slot a pencil in between the rubber band loop and the binder clip arm so the rubber band holds the pencil against the arm.

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Slide the pencil up or down so the end of the pencil is just above the main body of the binder clip. Tape the pencil to the arm of the binder clip.

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Stick the bottle cap onto the other end of the pencil. We used sticky foam, but you can also use tape or glue. (Make sure the bottle cap is facing forward!)

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You’re ready for launch! Put a pom-pom in the bottle cap, then hold the binder clip down with one hand and pull the pencil back with the other. Let it go and watch the pom-pom fly from the desk toy!
 For extra fun, try seeing how far you can launch your pom-poms, throwing several pom-poms at once, or set out a cup as a target and see if you can land a pom-pom in it!

What's going on?
 The desk catapult is able to throw projectiles because of tension in the binder clip. Tension builds up as the binder clip is bent backwards, out of shape, and when the arms of the binder clip are released, the clip relaxes back into its original shape. This quick relaxation relieves the clip's built-up tension, producing the throwing force that launches the pom poms into the air.

binder clip (jumbo)

rubber bands

Tape

pencil

bottle cap

pom poms

sticky foam (or glue) (optional)

Desk Catapult

flight

engineering

science project

game design

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We love catapults around here at KiwiCo. Launching things is endlessly entertaining! And it turns out cranberries make for the perfect ammunition.&nbsp;

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To make this catapult, we started by making an X out of two sticks and putting a rubber band around them. Then, we stacked up 7 sticks and secured them with 2 rubber bands. Each of these rubber bands should be about halfway between the ends of the sticks and the middle of the sticks.

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Now you are going to secure the X to the stack of sticks by using the rubber bands around the stack.

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Set this aside to build another part of the catapult. After we do that, we'll come back to this. As a heads up, we'll call this the X piece. 

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For this part of the catapult, bring 3 sticks together and secure them with a rubber band. The 2 sticks on the outside need to be in one direction. These will be 1 side of a rhombus. The stick sandwiched on one end between the 2 sticks will be another side of the rhombus.

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Grab another 3 sticks and complete your rhombus. On the side parallel to the one with 2 sticks, you'll have another 2 sticks. On the side parallel to the one with 1 stick, there will be another 1 stick.

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Shift your sticks a little to make the shape a square.

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Now you are ready to bring the X piece together with the square. Place the X on a side of the square. The X should be facing the inside of the square. Then secure it with 2 rubber bands - 1 on each side..

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This is how things should look at this point.

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Now, add a rubber band to the open end of the X piece. Slide the spoon between the rubber band. The back of the spoon should be towards the center of the square. 

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Now you are ready to launch! We chose cranberries as our ammunition since I had a few extra as I was preparing for Thanksgiving dinner. We were careful about where we were launching given the potential for stains or crushed berries. We also thought about heading outside for acorns. Or simply grabbing some pom poms. This catapult was endless entertainment as we tried to launch cranberries into a large bowl. At first, there was some sharing amongst the kids. Then, we quickly made more catapults: one for each kid.

2 fun catapult projects for kids

Screen-free fun!