Make a Fluttering Bat DIY
This Halloween bat craft for kids ages 5+ turns a safety pin, rubber bands, and a paperclip into paper bat wings that spin on their own.
Materials you'll need
- large safety pin
- small rubber bands
- paperclip
- pliers
- black construction paper
- scissors
- clear tape
- hardcover book (optional, for the surprise)
Step-by-step tutorial
Step 1: Make sure your safety pin is closed. Then knot 2 rubber bands onto the clasp end of the pin so they stretch along the inside of the pin.Step 2: With a grown-up's help, use pliers to bend the coiled end of the pin so its little loop sits flat across the top, like an eye you can thread wire through.
Step 3: Unfold a paperclip into a straight wire. Fold it in half and twist the middle into a small loop, leaving two long ends sticking out.
Step 4: Hook the paperclip loop onto the free end of the rubber bands. Push both paperclip ends up through the bent loop at the top of the pin, then pull them apart to make a T-shaped wing frame.
Step 5: Cut 2 large bat wings and a small pair of wings out of black paper. Tape a large wing onto each arm of the frame, and tape the small wings across the clasp end of the pin.
Step 6: Hold the pin by the clasp end and turn the wings around and around to twist the rubber bands really tight. Stop before the bands feel like they might snap. Let go and watch the wings flutter.
Step 7: Want to spook someone? Wind it up again, hold the wings still, and tuck the bat inside a closed book. When someone opens the book, out flutters your bat.
Learn more
This bat runs on elastic potential energy, the energy stored in something stretchy when you stretch or twist it. Each turn of the wings twists the rubber bands tighter and packs in more energy. When you let go, the bands unwind and turn that stored energy into kinetic energy, the energy of motion, which sends the wings whirling. As the paper wings spin, they push on the air and the air pushes back, so they flutter and wobble until the bands slow to a stop.Still batty for bats? Make a flapping bat puppet, grow crystal bats, and find out how sound travels with more cute bat DIYs.