DIY Hovercrafts

So....today has worked out great!  Every year I'm so impressed by our kids- how much they know! How eager they are to learn and participate (well most of them...

We played with our hovercraft today!  Yes you read that right- HOVERCRAFT!

I started out talking about things that fly, then transitioned into air-powered movement like our hovercraft and drew a diagram on the board about how it works.

                                  (that's the air escaping on the bottom and pushing it up so it glides)


Granted I only made one of these because of the work involved (and adult help needed) but the kids had a great time playing with just one, it works out fine!  After assembly you get lots of playing time so need to worry about These would be great for kids of all ages and it really is pretty easy to do!  Here's a picture and instructions so you can give it a try!

DIY Hovercrafts

Materials:

Balloon

CD

superglue or hotglue

cap to a soda bottle

drill (or something sharp)

Adult (to help assemble)

Steps: 

First glue you cap on your CD with super glue (or hot glue) and let dry. The cap should be placed over the hole of the CD (in the very center and like the on a soda bottle should be facing downwards)

Next, drill (easiest) or poke hole in soda cap. As long as it is relatively small it doesn't matter the size.  Honestly, even I had my dad do this part :) - he's good with those kinds of things!  

After assembly is finished, blow up a balloon and pinch the neck of it, pull it, so it goes over and stays on the bottle cap and you're ready to RELEASE!

This works great on flat surfaces (we used the hallway at school) or tables!  The fun part though is the experimenting.  My oldest group even came up with 7 (!) experiments they wanted to try- that is some great brainstorming!!!!

They wanted to see how it would work on a ramp, outside, in water (actually cool- more on that later), on the side of table.  There really is no limits so you can experiment away!  Games like passing back and forth are cool and I always relate it to airhockey :)  

Here's us making a tunnel with our legs and shooting it down the hall :)  

Hope you get a chance to try this out- like I said, it can be used with many ages and once it's made you have  it forever. 

* This is not my original idea, I did not come up with this it, I found it last year sometime (not on Pinterest- surprisingly).

** I know I've blogged about this before but there is some updates and twists I thought were worth mentioning