How to Make a Catapult that is Easy & Launches Chocolate

Ready for a little Valentine themed STEM learning? Check out below with background on how to make a chocolate launching catapult! We had so much fun making, playing, and eating with this catapult! The best part was making targets with a point system. We all love a little competition, right? Yes, we even tallied the scores. This Valentine activity is loads of fun for your home and your classroom (if you dare!).

How to Make a Catapult with Kids

Supplies Needed for this Catapult Activity

Ten craft sticks
Fifteen standard sized rubber bands
One thick/wide sized rubber band
One spoon
Chocolate morsels

Steps to Making the Catapult

Ask the child if she knows about this mechanism. Show her pictures and ask for the purpose of catapults.
Explain that it is an engineered machine that launches a projectile or an object that is launched into the air (typically) by force.
Then we gathered our materials
Then we watch this catapult video again (ha!)
We tested our catapult by launching chocolate morsels and talked about accuracy and precision. How accurate is the catapult in hitting a target? How precise is it in hitting the target multiple times?
After making mistakes (part of the process), we ate a few chocolate morsels to make ourselves feel better
We watched the video again!
Made adjustments and launched more chocolate
Tested our catapult and celebrated successes with eating more chocolate
We had fun and played with the catapult by hitting random targets

Experiment Further with Catapults

Change the weight of the object (use pom poms, ping pong balls, candy, etc)
Change the angles; compare how angle impacts the force and precision of the launch
Use different materials in building
Aim for targets; when is it most precise in hitting the same target again and again with the same object?
Record observations
Design and build your own challenge using different materials
Tons of AMAZING catapult activity ideas

Science Behind Catapults

Perhaps the perfect STEM activity to introduce concepts such as force, angle, motion, precision, projectile, and accuracy (to name a few keywords). The optimal angle – a three-sided polygon – for launching is 45 degrees. For young children, simply the hands’ act of building and basic introductions to terms is enough.

For older children, the learning behind the project gets much more detailed. Montessori Printshop offers a wonderful set of early childhood simple machine cards with concepts such as load, fulcrum, plane, effort, force using every day objects to describe the concept!