Tag: parachute

Outer Space Parachute

Leave a comment

Space Parachute (5)

Last summer and fall, Travis and I experimented with a few different ways to make a parachute. For home school “science” today we tried once more, but this time made it outer space-y with a coating of aluminum foil. Travis thought it looked just like the gear used to ease the landing of Mars rovers!

To start, wrap a paper cup in aluminum foil. Travis enjoyed decorating all over with star stickers (in keeping with the theme of course).

Space Parachute (2)Cut a square from a plastic shopping bag, and then use a hole punch to make a hole in each of the four corners (you may need to rip the bag a little bit, too, to help the hole punch through).

Space Parachute (3)

Cut four equal lengths of yarn and tie one to each corner with a knot. Gather these four strands together and push down through a hole in the top of the cup. Make a fat knot so they won’t slip back out.

Space Parachute (4)

Time to launch! My intrepid explorer bravely climbed the stairs.

Space Parachute (6)

Then it was 3, 2, 1: Blast off!

Play Parachute

Leave a comment

Play Parachute (4).JPG

Of the various parachutes Travis has made, this one flew the best.  So read on!

To make it, first we traced an 18-inch circle on a plastic garbage bag, great for both measuring and cutting skills.

Play Parachute (1)

Use a hole punch to make 8 holes at even intervals around the parachute. The hole punch was tough to get through the plastic, so once I had made an indent, I sometimes had to poke the rest of the way with a finger.

Play Parachute (2)

Tie a length of string into each hole, making sure they are all the same length. Punch two holes in a paper cup and tie four strings into each hole.

Play Parachute (3)

If you want, you can decorate the cup with stickers or markers. Travis added a few stickers, but truth be told wasn’t that interested in the decorating portion.

Play Parachute alt

Gather the “parachute” up like an umbrella, then fold it in half and tuck into the cup so the folded part is pointing upwards.

Play Parachute (5)

Now it was time to head outside and throw as high as we could (a mommy arm was helpful here).

Play Parachute (6)

Then watch the parachute open up and float to the ground.

Play Parachute (7)

Travis wanted to add a passenger to our parachute, so we put in a brave solder (i.e. a Lego).

Play Parachute (8)

However, the parachute wasn’t able to unfurl with this little guy in the way, so I recommend letting your parachute having unmanned flights!

Play Parachute (9)