Elastic Aeroplanes

My brain was a bit stuck on projectiles last night after making the straw rockets, so I created another little activity for the girls to try out today as well. It was easy to make and a complete blast, and worked even better than I expected; the whole family got involved :-) My siblings and I used to play something similar with folded newspaper, except we used real slingshots!
This would be a great game to play outside using tree branches, and I love the way it could be set up anywhere. I'll be adding it to our little bag of travel games I think!

WE USED:

* craft paper
* texta/pen
* scissors
* glue
* elastic
* childrens table (could use any table or something entirely different!)

Cut a large sheet of paper to a width of about 10cm (I used a piece of scrapbooking paper). Fold down your sheet making the folds about 5cm until you reach the end.

You should have a rolled up piece of paper like this.

Fold it in half as shown.

Cut aeroplane shapes from contrasting paper (maybe get your child to decorate them for some extra fun) and glue the tails to the folded paper as shown. Make sure your aeroplanes are facing towards the 'folded' end, not the 'open' end.

To make our launch pad I turned the girls craft table upside down and used two of the legs to tie across some thick elastic. Make sure it's tied very securely, you dont want it coming undone when it is pulled on.
You could easily tie your elastic across the legs of a dining or kitchen table (right side up of course :-D) or the legs of a heavy chair. Tree branches outside would be fun too - be inventive!

We put down a towel for Bubble to sit on and pretended the table was her pilot seat :-)

Hold your aeroplane so that the elastic runs through the middle folded section as shown above. The open end should be facing your child with the elastic sandwiched in between and the folded end pointing forwards.
The idea is that you pull back till the elastic is taut and then let go so that your plane is launched across the room.

Bubble launching her aeroplanes.

They shot all the way across the room and would have gone much further had we had more space!

Daddy showed Bubble how to change her trajectory each time, so the planes shot up, down and straight depending on how they were angled when she let go. Although Squeak was too little to launch any planes herself she loved watching this activity and laughed at every single take off :-)