My Montessori Journey: Make your own rocket

Last week I put out a rocket project that was VERY popular in the classroom. To set up this project, I found a rocket printable from Making Learning Fun. I copied a bunch of the rockets on white cardstock and placed them into a small tray. To the large work tray I also added a bowl of straws cut into about 2-inch lengths, scissors, red and blue markers, and a pencil. You can see the whole set-up below.

To do this activity the child first colors the rocket using the markers. I pointed out that the rocket is a United States rocket and reminded the children that our country's colors are red, white, and blue. Therefore, we will use those colors for our rocket. After coloring the next step is to cut out the rocket. Since there are so many black lines this can be visually challenging for young children as they don't always know which line to cut on. A modification you can do in this situation is to take another marker in a different color and outline the rocket. That way the child can easily see where to cut. After cutting, they use the pencil to write their name on the back. Then they bring a straw and the rocket to a teacher.

The teacher uses tape to attach the straw to the back of the rocket as shown below. The top end of the straw must be squished flat and taped down so air cannot escape from that end.

Once this part is complete the child is given a coffee stirrer cut in half. This is placed into the open end of the straw as shown here. We instructed the children to hold the black "straw" and blow through the end. This propels the rocket into the air (briefly) much to the joy and excitement of the child who has just launched their rocket. One tip is to not jam the coffee stirrer too far into the other straw. This can prevent "take-off" from occurring and can be discouraging to your little astronaut.