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Home » Activities » Science » Easy Rocket Craft – Perfect Space Themed Project for Preschoolers

Easy Rocket Craft – Perfect Space Themed Project for Preschoolers

This post may contain affiliate links. See my disclosure .

As I journey down our homeschool path, I have a few homeschool “bibles” from which I source activities and ideas for preschool learning. For example, one of these books is Rachelle Doorley’s Tinkerlab: A Hands-On Guide for Little Inventors. This book is accessible, beautiful, and filled with easy crafts (like the rocket ship craft in this post) for preschoolers.

Learn a Fun & Easy Space Themed Activity

In other words, I simply enjoy the process of looking at its pages because I feel inspired by the words and images. I am excited to show you one of the many projects in this book – the straw rocket craft, simple and packs a punch with kids. If you have ever wondered how to make a rocket with kids, this easy craft is the perfect starting point.

Easy Rocket Craft for Preschoolers

“There is the happiness which comes from creative effort. The joy of dreaming, creating, building, whether in painting a picture, writing an epic, singing a song, composing a symphony, devising new invention, creating a vast industry.”  ~ Henry Miller  

Doorley presents simple yet powerful ideas to help us parents and teachers guide our children’s innate desire to learn, to do, to build, to wonder, to create, and to imagine by presenting an arsenal of hands-on learning activities.

Related Read: 10+ Amazing Ways to Make a Catapult with Kids

Children develop problem-solving, logic, and critical thinking skills by doing rather than imitating. She does this by introducing easy crafts and activities for preschoolers, like the rocket craft presented in this post.  This science craft is the perfect addition to a spaced themed unit of learning.

Straw Rocket Tinkerlab

Doorley provides easy to read and to digest philosophy and research behind the ideas presented in Tinkerlab: A Hands-On Guide for Little Inventors. She also provides tangible words of wisdom to adults in how to make these activities happen in our home and classrooms.

You will be hearing a lot more about this book as we explore and progress through it.

Easy Paper Rocket Ship Craft for Preschoolers

Materials

  • 1 piece of construction paper (or 2 if you want different colors)
  • Scissors
  • Straw
  • Tape

Rocket Straw Materials

How to Make a Rocket for Kids

  • Cut paper in half
  • Roll one half into your rocket’s body
  • Tape so the body stays wrapped up

How to Make a Rocket with Kids - Easy Rocket Craft

  • Cut a circle about 1.5 inches in diameter from the other piece of paper
  • Then, cut a slit to the center (or origin of the circle
  • Roll from slit to create a cone from the circle
  • Tape paper to maintain a cone
  • Finally, place nose on the end of the rocket’s body. Secure with tape.

Rocket Craft Preschool

  • Blow a puff of air through the straw. Watch your child’s face light up with joy.
  • Repeat.

Rocket Ship Craft for Preschoolers

Related Read: Send a Hug Craft

11 Easy Extensions for this Easy Craft

  • The child can decorate her rocket. So, add decorating materials (e.g. glitter, glue, markers, stickers, etc) to your materials list for added rocket detail.
  • Incorporate your rocket into imaginary play and storytelling
  • Try a shorter (or longer or fatter or skinnier) straw and see what happens
  • Use shorter (or longer or fatter or skinnier) body and see what happens
  • Create different size cones for the nose. Observe what changes when you blow through the straw.
  • Ask about shapes (e.g. cone, circle, cylinder)
  • Discuss rocket launches
  • Inquire how the speed at which the rocket launches might change (blow slowly, blow quickly, short breath, long breath, etc)
  • Remove the nose and ask why the rocket doesn’t launch
  • Then try blowing up instead of blowing out. How does this change the launch pattern of the rocket?
  • Take the space learning a bit further and discuss gravity

This project is one of over 50 in Rachelle’s book, Tinkerlab: A Hands-On Guide for Little Inventors. She has a great Tinkerlab blog, too. I can’t recommend her work enough to you all! You won’t regret a minute spent!

Related Activity: Super Fun & Easy Solar Eclipse Activities for Kids

More Straw Rocket Projects for Kids

If your child wants more straw rockets, check out these tutorials. Have fun!

Make a Slingshot Straw Rocket

How to Make Simple Straw Rockets

How to Make a Rocket from Paper & a Straw

I hope we inspired you today!
Marnie

Tagged With: Crafts, Easy & Inexpensive, Easy Science for Kids, Elementary, Kindergarten, Math, Preschool, Space

About Marnie Craycroft

Marnie hails from Maine where she spent summers buried in sand and winters buried in snow. She is the daughter of a nearly four decade veteran of the public school systems. Teaching has always been a part of her life. She founded Carrots Are Orange in 2010.

Carrots Are Orange is a Montessori learning and living website for parents and teachers.

Marnie graduated from Wesleyan University in 1999 with a BA in Economics. She spent nearly a decade working in investment management. In 2006, she earned her MA in business from the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business.

Marnie moved to the west coast in 1999 and currently lives in Boulder with her husband and three sons. She is Montessori trained. Her work has been featured on Apartment Therapy, Buzzfeed, PBS Kids, BabyCenter, the Melissa & Doug blog, Huffington Post, and WhattoExpect.com. Besides writing, passions include running (usually after her three sons), photography, and outdoor adventures.

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