Paper Towel Roll Rockets: A Creative Play Activity For Kids

The other day, we broke out our leftover crafting materials and made some Paper Towel Roll Rockets…wearing real astronaut suits! Creative Play Rules!

Does anyone else think this Summer is much hotter than last year?? I know I do! And every time I think about griping about it, I remember the days when my siblings and I would be locked out of the house for hours as kids. Somehow, we managed to only survive with a hose, ice pops, and if we were lucky a baby pool. But, it’s where our imaginations flourished, our skin burned, and (only now do I understand how) we had the best nights sleep ever.

I try to be that mom, but I can’t help but want to be a part of what the kids are doing. Maybe it’s my love of ice pops, but somehow, I’ve managed to morph into one of those moms that plans at least fifteen activities each day. It’s exhausting for sure and the boys are so young they probably won’t remember, but it’s all about having fun while we can!

In Florida, we have the luxury of being a car ride away from a lot of cool theme parks. We frequent Legoland, Disney events, and our favorite, Kennedy Space Center. My five-year-old has been obsessed with space lately, and for anyone nearby or visiting, I suggest planning your trip around a rocket launch. Nothing is cooler in a kids eye than seeing a real rocket blast into the sky from one of NASA’s “homes,” as Mr. J calls it.

In an attempt to change up our Summer days a bit, we decided to break out any materials that we had on hand and make rocket ships. Of course, this had to be done wearing real astronaut suits (bought at Kennedy Space Center)! My two year old chose to be Buzz Lightyear. Pretty smart if you ask me!

And since I always love to incorporate fun facts into our craft sessions, here are some cool facts about rockets that children of any age will love!

A space shuttle weighs over 4.5 million pounds!
The longest orbit of the space shuttle last 17 1/2 Days!
Even though a shuttle takes off like a rocket, it lands like an airplane.

PAPER TOWEL ROLL ROCKETS

Materials:

Paper towel rolls – We had some leftover wrapping paper rolls that worked great too!
Colored paper – Make sure to have at least orange and red to make the flames at the bottom.
Glue and/or Glue Stick
Scissors
Miscellaneous: mini Pompoms, stars, gold and silver circles,etc.

Directions:

Step 1: Cover the roll with any color paper desired and glue edges. Since most sheets won’t cover the whole thing, make it more colorful and choose more than one. This is a great time to reinforce scissor use! Even at the age of five, my son practices cutting shapes.

Step 2: Have your little one cut shapes for the windows. This can be done with any color; we chose white.

Step 3: Start decorating! The crazier the better!

Step 4: Tear pieces of red and orange (or yellow!) paper and glue to the inside of the bottom of the tube. I loved how the flames looked when torn because it wasn’t perfect and looked realistic when the boys “flew” them around the backyard.

Step 5: Use a different color piece of construction paper, and fold it into a cone. You may need to cut a part of the bottom off to fit on your roll. This is the top, and final piece.

Step 6: Fly your rocket!

Happy crafting,

Gina Lawrence