Popsicle Stick Catapult
We made this popsicle stick catapult with the kids the other day and it was a huge hit. This was our STEM activity for the day.
The kids made some small catapults and some big ones - and then a few days later, they decided to make a Plants vs Zombies game (out of card stock) and use the catapults for the pea shooters!
This is a fun and easy craft to do with the kids to keep them busy and exercise their creative muscles and their engineering skills.
How to Make a Popsicle Stick Catapult
The biggest challenge for the kids in making this popsicle stick catapult was the fine motor skills and dexterity it takes to wrap a rubber band tightly around a stack of popsicle sticks. I had to help my 6-year-olds with the rubber bands, but they did give a valiant effort.
Once we had the basic catapult built, they had a lot of fun gluing the 'basket' onto the top (or 2 baskets for a double-launcher) and decorating their popsicle sticks.
Materials you need to make your catapult:
- 7 (or more) popsicle sticks
- 4 rubber bands
- glue (we used hot glue)
- something to make a 'basket' to hold your ammunition - we used a bottle cap
- pom poms or something else to launch
How to Make a Popsicle Stick Catapult
- Take a stack of 5 popsicle sticks and wrap a rubber band tightly around each end.
- Take 2 more popsicle sticks and position them 1 above and 1 below the stack of 5 popsicle sticks.
- Wrap a rubber band tightly around 1 end of the 2 popsicle sticks so that your 2 popsicle sticks form a "V", with the stack of 5 at the base of the "V".
- Wrap another rubber band (less tightly) around the 2 popsicle sticks, on the other side of the stack of 5, to keep the whole catapult together.
- Glue a bottle cap or another lid, etc. on the end of the top popsicle stick to make a "basket" for launching objects.
Making a Super-Sized Popsicle Stick Catapult
You can also use the jumbo craft sticks to make a super-sized popsicle stick catapult.
To make our super-sized version, we just modified the materials a little bit.
- Use a stack of 5 jumbo sized craft sticks for the base of the catapult.
- Add another stack of 4 small craft sticks (popsicle sticks) on top of the stack of jumbo craft sticks. This will give your catapult more power.
- Make a "V" shape with 2 jumbo craft sticks and fit your "V" onto your 2 stacks of jumbo + regular craft sticks.
- Use a large lid for the "basket". (We used an old play dough lid.)
When we were experimenting with the super sized version of the catapult, we found that we needed to add a stack of regular-sized craft sticks onto the base of the jumbo-sized ones. Making a big stack of just jumbo sized craft sticks did not give us much distance when we launched our pom poms.
Turn this into a science experiment (a.k.a. Catapult STEM Activity):
- Experiment with different numbers of popsicle sticks for your base. See how it affects distance when you launch your pom poms.
- Experiment with size and number of popsicle sticks.
- Experiment with structure. Can you come up with a different design for your popsicle stick catapult?
- Instead of making a popsicle stick "V" and gluing a lid on top, use a plastic spoon (if you have one) as the launcher. How does this change your catapult?
- Experiment with launching different objects. Try different sizes, weights, and densities. Which type of object travel furthest?
Rebecca is a chaplain at a girls’ school, a mom to boys, and a crafter of all things. She crochets in every free moment she has, and she spends much of her time gluing cotton balls to toilet paper rolls and mopping up glitter.
