Top 3 Father’s Day crafts

Make new toys with your Dad!

Safe­ty pre­cau­tions

Warn­ing! Only un­der adult su­per­vi­sion.

Equip­ment

  • pa­per cups;
  • bam­boo skew­ers;
  • wood­en pop­si­cle sticks;
  • rub­ber bands;
  • zip ties;
  • plas­tic lids;
  • bead;
  • hot glue;
  • scis­sors;
  • pli­ers;
  • wire cut­ters;
  • awl;
  • sta­tionery knife.

Step-by-step in­struc­tions

Race car:

Poke 4 holes in a pa­per cup. Cut 2 small pieces and 1 large piece from a pa­per straw, pass them through the holes in the cup, and fix in place with hot glue. Trim the straws to even their lengths and in­sert bam­boo skew­ers as axles. Make and en­large holes in four bot­tle caps. Put the “wheels” on the axles. Make a hole in the bot­tom of the cup and thread a rub­ber band through it, fix­ing it to the base of the cup with a pa­per­clip and to the rear axle with a zip tie. Put one more rub­ber band on each rear wheel. Spin the wheels back to start the en­gine. Your car is ready!

He­li­copter:

Poke 4 holes op­po­site each oth­er in the bot­tom of a pa­per cup. At­tach 4 wood­en skew­ers to the end of a pa­per straw and cut off the ex­cess part of the straw. In­sert the con­struc­tion into the holes in the cup and fix in place with hot glue. Make a hole in the mid­dle of a wood­en pop­si­cle stick. Un­bend a pa­per­clip and pass it through the hole in the stick, bend the end back, and at­tach to the pop­si­cle stick with hot glue. Add a bead to your makeshift pro­pel­ler and put it in place. Fold a large rub­ber band on it­self and pass a bam­boo skew­er through it. Break the skew­er to fit in the base of the pa­per cup and hot glue it in place. Bend the pro­pel­ler shaft and put the rub­ber band on the hook. Cut “blades” from a sec­ond pa­per cup and hot glue them to the pro­pel­ler. Start the he­li­copter by ro­tat­ing the blades coun­ter­clock­wise. Your he­li­copter is ready to fly!

Boat:

Poke two holes in a pa­per cup and thread a straw through them, fix­ing it with hot glue. Break a wood­en pop­si­cle stick into 4 equal pieces. Make 4 “tabs” op­po­site each oth­er in a plas­tic bot­tle cap and hot glue a pop­si­cle stick piece to each one. Re­peat once more to make a sec­ond pro­pel­ler. Open the “hull” of the boat. Cut off the ex­cess of the straw on both the in­side and out­side of the boat and thread a skew­er through. Fix a plas­tic tie in the mid­dle of the axis and trim the tail. Make a hole in each bot­tle cap and put them on the axis. Make a hole in the front of the boat and thread a cut rub­ber band through it, tie a knot in the rub­ber band, and trim the ex­cess. Glue a stern to the boat to keep wa­ter out. Put a can­dle in a glass and pour boil­ing wa­ter over it to melt it: the paraf­fin should float to the sur­face. Use this paraf­fin to coat the boat. Start the en­gine by hook­ing the rub­ber band to the zip tie. Place some bal­last in the front of the boat and launch it into the wa­ter.

Process de­scrip­tion

All three mech­a­nisms are based on the law of con­ser­va­tion of en­er­gy: as it stretch­es, a rub­ber band stores po­ten­tial en­er­gy. The rub­ber band length­ens as it is wound around the axle and twists with it­self; elas­tic force then re­turns the rub­ber band to its orig­i­nal length. Po­ten­tial en­er­gy is con­vert­ed into ki­net­ic en­er­gy: the rub­ber band spins the he­li­copter’s pro­pel­ler, boat’s mo­tor, and car’s axle.

Get even more cool toys with the MEL Kids sub­scrip­tion!

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