Straw and paper shooters are very simple to make, and kids of all ages will love them. Just ask my husband. It is one of those easy crafts that takes minutes and then is enjoyed over and over again. I found this idea a while back at Life at the Zoo. I pinned it for later use, and I finally got around to making them.
Above is the simplified visual tutorial. I’ll break it down.
The first thing to do is to cut your paper to size. You don’t want thick paper. Just a normal weight paper will do. I have loads of fun, colorful paper to choose from. I know the kids like to look through the papers to pick out their favorites, so I let them do that. At Life of Zoo she had them color on the paper, which is another great option. I then drew out the rectangle for them to cut. I made the rectangle about 2/3 the length of the straw and then about two inches wide. There’s no exact science to this.
The next step is to roll it up. I used the straw to help me roll it up. The picture above is me helping Kenzie hold it together once it was rolled into place.
Taping is the next step. I had the girls tape all the way up the long edge. Then, they fold over the top and tape that down as well.
There you have your shooter. With the air tight paper, when you blow into the straw the air has no place else to go, so it pushes the paper across the room.
Time to shoot. I finally caught a picture of one mid-air. Can you see it? I took a lot of attempts in capturing it, but it’s hard to snap the shot at just the right moment.
Here’s another shot of mid-air papers. The kids were having a competition in the kitchen to see who could shoot theirs the farthest. It’s kind of a blurry picture, but I wanted to show the fun they had as they kept competing over and over for distance.
At Life at the Zoo blog, she drew chalk lines to have places to aim. Great idea.
This should entertain the kids for quite some time. I can’t imagine you won’t join in the fun too.
My husband taught my kids to do this with the papers on their straws at McDonalds, and now the kids always shoot their straw papers across MacDonalds as soon as we give them their drinks.
Nice! Love it! What I loved about these is that they could play with them over and over again. Thanks for commenting!
My kids love doing this with straw wrappers! They would love these for sure!
I hope you do them. They are tons of fun!
What fun, we have to try this one! I have a bunch of extra straws ready! My kids love to use a measuring tape. We could measure each attempt and see if we could shoot the paper past our last mark.
I totally want to expand the activity with the measuring idea! I thought it would be fun to do it outside and mark the distance with chalk too. Thanks so much for commenting. I hope you have fun with it!
This is such a fun idea! I especially love that the kids can make these by themselves!
I’d love to have you share this or any of your amazing posts at our weekly Super Saturday Link Party. It starts Friday’s at 6pm, hope we see you there!
Tracy
Thanks, Tracy. I’ll have fun checking out your site. I’ve been so busy that I’ve only had time to link up at SOME of my regular spots. I just can’t add more right now, but I’ll have fun stopping by. Thanks for commenting.