Kids + Catapults = Fun! And what better fun than to actually make your own catapult, from some yummy edible materials like marshmallows?! Once constructed, you can use them straight away too and fine-tune your target practice. Here’s how to make a catapult for kids using marshmallows.
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We loved this idea of making catapults from marshmallows that we saw on It’s Always Autumn, so I set my son and his pal the challenge of recreating it, all in the interest of research (and marshmallows of course!). Turned out to be the perfect way to pass a few hours on a rainy day.
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How to Make a Catapult for Kids Using Marshmallows
What You Need
You’ll need these things for each catapult you make:
- 4 Marshmallows
- 7 Wooden Skewers
- 1 Elastic Band – we used loom bands which worked perfectly, and provided a long trajectory due to their tension.
- Sticky tape
- 1 Plastic Spoon
What To Do
- Firstly, form a triangle using 2 wooden skewers and 3 marshmallows – we found that you need to push the skewers in quite a bit into the marshmallows for stability.
- Lay this triangle on the table and then use 3 more skewers and 1 marshmallow to form a pyramid.
- Stick your plastic spoon to another wooden skewer securely using sticky tape – we found sellotape worked best for us.
- Loop the elastic band around the base of marshmallow at the top of your pyramid.
- Then pass the wooden skewer that has the spoon attached, through the elastic band, and stick the bottom of that skewer into one of the base marshmallows.
- And hey presto – you’ve got your catapult. We tried a variety of lego objects to catapult, and found round blocks a good weight and size, but really anything goes. Have some fun with target practice – we put a large bowl in centre of table and tried to get the objects into it.
- Kids can play with it straight away, but if they can manage to leave for a few hours or overnight, then the marshmallows harden up and catapult becomes stronger.
The catapults, as well as being fun and quick to make, are a neat simple way of teaching kids about cause and effect – how much to pull spoon down, what objects to fire etc.
One word of warning though – those marshmallows are addictive and very hard to resist – we found it difficult to keep enough for the catapults!
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Have your say! Have you tried making a catapult out of marshmallows before? Let us know in the comments below.