Straw Rockets

This amazing activity will turn the learning environment into space with several colourful rockets flying here and there. This is an activity thus exercising the fine motor skills of the child. Kids here will be making and blowing their own straw rockets.

Materials

Straws of 2 different diameters (1 thin and 1 thick)
Tape and scissors
Coloured craft papers

What To Do

With the coloured craft papers make small rocket shapes just large enough to be stuck at the tip of the straws.
Now cut the straws with lesser diameters (thinner one) into small pieces of about 2 inches. Seal one side of these pieces with tape. You may also let children decorate the rocket with stickers, stamps, markers. This is also a good way to demonstrate Newton’s second law stickers increase the mass of the rocket and will slow down its acceleration. You can test this by cutting 2 of identical rockets from the paper, and then add stickers to one rocket and not the other.
Stick the rocket shapes onto the thick straw.
Now take the thicker straw and insert it lightly onto the thin straw.

The straw rockets are ready.
Now ask the kids to place the open end near their mouth and blow air through it and see the rockets fly.

Hints and Tips:

Involve the children in making rockets. During this activity you can ask kids what they know about rockets or other air vehicles. You can also put slides showing various space vehicles for making the activity more interesting.
Also if you get printable of rockets and air planes you can use them directly instead of making.
After completing the activity ask kids questions like how did they feel when their rockets were flying and what made them fly and so on. The more you make them speak, the more they learn to communicate.
Blowing of air through mouth has several benefits. It will improve the breathing patterns. Since you breathe out more thoroughly, you will be clearing off the stale air in the lungs and making room for fresh inhaled air. Also it relieves from shortness of breath.

References