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

1. 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.
2. Lay this triangle on the table and then use 3 more skewers and 1 marshmallow to form a pyramid.
3. Stick your plastic spoon to another wooden skewer securely using sticky tape – we found sellotape worked best for us.
4. Loop the elastic band around the base of marshmallow at the top of your pyramid.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.