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The Fabric Parachutes made great homemade toys that kept my kids busy all day long!  They had a great time practicing their sewing skills and then launching their parachutes from every high surface in the house!  Best of all, these were absolutely free since we used leftover material from other projects!

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Gather all materials.  We used leftover cotton fabrics from lots of different projects.  We also used small wooden bobbins, but you could easily use a lightweight wooden bead or a small toy figure.  The kids could even experiment to see which toys and materials work best.

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My 5-year-old carefully traced a large dinner plate on the backside of the fabric with a felt-tipped marker.  He asked why we were using the large plates and we got to talk about surface area and wind resistance.  The more surface area we have the more air will push against our parachute and the better it will fly.

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My 7-year-old carefully used our sewing scissors to cut out the circle.  You could probably use regular scissors with this step, but I find it's less frustrating and creates less fraying to use fabric scissors.

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We used the marker to make 8 dots around the outside of the circle.  We were careful to make them the same distance apart and to put them about 1/2 an inch from the edge.  These marks let us know where to sew our thread for the strings of the parachute.

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For our parachute strings, we measured our thread to be about 12 inches long.  For our first parachute, we used longer strings and they tangled easily when they were flying.  The shorter strings were easier for my kids to manage.

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My 7-year-old was adamant that he wanted to sew his strings on all by himself and he did a great job.  This is an easy beginning sewing project because it gives lots of practice threading the needle and making simple stitches.  We did three stitches on top of each other for each dot and then left the string hanging from the back of the circle.  He was so proud of himself for doing all of his sewing on his own!

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I used the tape to secure the strings to our wooden bobbin.  It worked best when I tried to keep the strings on their side of the bobbin rather than wrapping them around the bobbin first.  We found that painter's tape was easy to work with and added a splash of color.

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The kids had a great time with their homemade parachutes!  They started by dropping them off of a step-stool and then moved outside to drop them from our front porch.  Eventually, they were climbing our play set to launch them off the top of the slide.  

lightweight fabric

large plate or bowl (for tracing)

Scissors

needle and thread

lightweight wooden bobbin (or lightweight toy)

Tape

felt tipped markers

Fabric Parachutes

science project

space

space crafts

Create a space module to parachute from space. 

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To make a space module, cover a cup with aluminum foil. 

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Decorate the module with stickers, markers, or paint. 

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To make a parachute, cut a square from a plastic grocery bag (about 12 in. x 12 in. or 30.5&nbsp;x&nbsp;30.5 cm). Cut 4 pieces of yarn in equal lengths. Punch a hole in each corner of the plastic bag. Tie one piece of yarn on each corner of the parachute.  

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Once all 4 strings are tied onto the parachute, gather them and guide them through a hole in the top of the module/cup. I poked a hole in the cup using a nail. 

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Tie a double knot with the pieces of yarn on the underside of the module/cup to secure it. Now you are ready for action!

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From a high point, hold the parachute from the top. 

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Drop your space module and see where it lands. 

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Have a race with 2 space modules. Can your space module land on a target on the ground? My kids had hours of fun with this! Up and down the stairs they went to race, fly, and experiment with their space modules. 

aluminum foil

yarn

plastic grocery bag

Outer Space Parachute

STEM

quick experiment

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flight

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Have you ever ridden a bicycle down a hill and felt the wind on your face? Air is all around you. To move through it, you have to push it out of the way. That means it's pushing back on you, too. That push is called air resistance. Imagine a parachutist jumping out of an airplane and falling to the ground. The opened parachute would use air resistance to slow down its descent. In this experiment, we create a parachute toy using a Ziploc® brand sandwich bag to learn about air resistance and see it in action.

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Use soft felt-tipped permanent markers to decorate the Ziploc® brand sandwich bag. This will be your parachute. 

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Turn the top edge of the bag inside out to keep the bag open. 

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Cut two pieces of string, each 14-inches long. 

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Pull one of the strings through the straw.

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Reach into the bag and pull both bottom corners in, so they’re inside the bag. 

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Tie each end of the string to each inside corner of the bag.

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Pull the second string through the same straw. 

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Tie your small toy to the second string, so that your toy becomes attached to your parachute. It’s now the passenger!

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Find a high point to drop your toy. You can go to the top of a set of stairs or stand on a chair. Drop the parachute and watch its descent! To see air resistance in action, simultaneously drop the toy with the parachute and an identical toy without a parachute. How much longer does the toy with the parachute take to fall? Can you think of a way to extend the duration of the fall even longer?

This experiment is all about opposing forces. As you fall, the force of gravity pulls you down, making you fall faster and faster. But with the help of a parachute, the force of air resistance from the parachute would push against your downward motion, counterbalancing the force of gravity and slowing your fall. (Hint: The more air you push against, the more it pushes back on you.)How much your parachute slows your fall depends on how much air resistance it makes. What might be some ways to increase the air resistance? What if you had a much bigger parachute? Or a different shape of parachute? Experiment and see what happens!

ziploc® brand sandwich bag

permanent marker (soft felt-tipped)

string

straw

small toys (1 to 2 inches big) (2)

Ruler

Parachute Toy

painting

physics

It's a bird...it's a plane...wait--could it be? It's a flying kitty! And an airborne...penguin?!<br><br>My kids are fascinated with flight, so we decided to give their toys "wings" by creating parachutes using just napkins and strings. Talk about a fantastic way to teach kids about gravity and weight!

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First, we got together our supplies. The kids had the most fun finding their "passenger" for the parachute.

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They unfolded their napkins to make large squares. My five-year-old liked sharing his decorating techniques with his three-year-old sis--but both kids designed their parachutes however they liked.  

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After the parachutes were decorated, they tied a string to each corner of the parachute. (I helped my young kids with this step.) 

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Then, for each parachute, we tied all four strings together down at the bottom, leaving extra long ties at the ends. 

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Next the kids tied their "passenger" to the strings using the ends. We discussed what parachute the kids thought would be the fastest and which one would be the slowest. They both made their guesses. 

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Then we took the parachutes outside to test our creations! The parachute can either be dropped from a high point or thrown up high in the air. The kids loved watching their parachutes float (or race down) to the ground. 

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We talked about the results and then the kids found other objects they could launch, such as feathers that gently floated to the ground and rocks that PLUMMETED downwards. Hmm--scientific discovery taking flight: What a beautiful thing! 

4 creative parachute projects for kids

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