Kids of all ages will have fun with this craft stick bridge STEM challenge. 

Younger kids will enjoy building and then playing with the end product.  Older kids can use this activity to learn about the different forces acting on bridges and why they are designed the way they are.  

When it comes to STEM supplies to always keep on hand, craft sticks are a favorite.  They are versatile, can be used for numerous projects, and are inexpensive.  (I love getting ours at the Dollar Store.)

Besides using them to build bridges, a favorite for kids of all ages is making a craft stick catapult. If you haven’t tried that one yet, I highly recommend it.  

Before starting this project, you may want to discuss a few different types of bridges with your child.  This is perfect to do while driving — there are so many different types of bridges you can see!

A truss bridge is actually one of the oldest forms of modern bridges. 

The sides on a truss bridge consists of a series of triangles, making it very strong. 

Craft Stick Bridge

Materials Needed:

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• Craft Sticks  (You need at least 80.)
• Hot Glue Gun
• Scissors 

To create your own truss bridge with craft sticks, you will start by making 6 triangles.  

Do this by arranging 3 craft sticks together to form a triangle, with their ends slightly overlapping.  Hot glue them together.  (Quick drying tacky glue is a great alternative for this STEM project, especially if you want to test how much weight your bridge can hold once it is built.)

Make 5 more triangles, just like the first one, until you have a total of 6.  

Once you have your triangles made, set them aside.  It’s time to make a base for the triangles to connect to.  

Lay 3 craft sticks, end to end, in a straight line.

Cut another craft stick in half.  Hot glue half of that craft stick on top of the first craft stick in your line of 3, making sure their curved ends are flush together. 

Take 2 more whole craft sticks and glue them onto the row, covering up the seams where the bottom craft sticks meet each other.  

Finally, glue on the other half of the craft stick you cut in half.  

Repeat this process, so you have 2 rows of craft sticks that have been glued together.

Once that is finished, hot glue the bottoms of 3 triangles to one of your rows of craft sticks.  Repeat with the other 3 triangles and craft stick row.   

To make the tops of your bridge’s sides, you will do a similar process.

Start by laying 2 craft sticks end to end.

Cut another stick in half and hot glue half of it on top of one of your 2 full craft sticks, making sure the curved ends match up.  

Hot glue a full craft stick, making sure it touches the edge of your half stick and coveres up the seam of the bottom 2 craft sticks.

Then glue on the other half piece.  

Repeat this process so you have 2 short rows of craft sticks glued together.  

Now glue these short rows to the top portion of your triangles.  This will complete your bridge’s sides. 

Once your sides are complete, it is time to start building the bridge’s base.

Stand your sides up and hot glue one craft stick in the middle of your middle triangle on one of the sides to the other side.  Make sure the craft stick lays flat. 

Hot glue a few more sticks across the bridge’s bottom.  I suggest placing one in the middle of each triangle, and one at the corner of each triangle.  These will be supports for the bridge deck.    

(The pic below was taken BEFORE we finished adding in all of the craft sticks at the bottom.)

To make a solid bridge deck that toy cars can travel on, you wil need to build a bridge deck.

Hot glue craft sticks perpendicular across those supports you just added.  Make sure they touch side to side.

It took us 9 craft sticks to go from one side to the other.  

You will repeat this process 3 times to make a solid base that is the entire length of your bridge.  

For added strength at the top of your bridge, add a craft stick going across the middle.  Then add a few more, spaced out evenly, going towards each end.    

Once your bridge is complete, it’s time to test it out. 

It’s perfect for driving small cars over. 

But to make it even more of a STEM activity, you may want to challenge your child to see how much weight it can hold.  

Craft Stick Truss Bridge

To test the strength of your bridge, place the bridge so its ends rest on 2 chairs.

Tie a small bucket to the middle of the bridge’s base. 

Slowly fill the bucket with small weights, such as ankle weights. 

If small weights aren’t available, you can also use sand to test how much weight it can hold.  Just weigh the bucket of sand afterwards to determine how much it weighs.  

Want to extend the activity?

Challenge your child to make a longer bridge and see how much weight it can hold. 

Can they figure out how to construct it so it can hold the same amount of weight?  Can they make it stronger?  

How a Truss Bridge Works

Bridges have lots of forces that act on them.   Gravity is one of those forces since bridges don’t have ground under them to help support them.

Bridges also have to deal with changing loads, not only do they have to support their own weight, but also the weight of whatever may travel over them, which is constantly changing.   The triangle shape on a truss bridge helps with this.  

Truss bridges use triangles to help make them stronger.  Triangles are a very strong shape because the force added to a triangle gets spread out evenly on all 3 of its sides.  

There are also several other factors that act on a bridge, such as tension (a force that stretches and pulls outward) and compression (a force that squeezes inward).  In a truss bridge the triangle shapes help distribute these.

You can find out more about how different types of bridges work at Bridge Masters Inc.  

If you liked this craft stick bridge STEM activity, you will also like:

• Craft Stick Rubber Band Shooter
• Mechanical Hand Made with Straws
• How to Make a Lemon Battery
• Build a Paper Cup Water Wheel

The post Engineer a Truss Bridge with Craft Sticks first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

Even if the kids can’t make it to camp this year, you can have fun with your own backyard camp activities. 

Have fun and teach basic knife skills with soap carving for kids.

Affiliate links have been used below at no expense to you.  See my full disclosure here. 

This simple camp craft would be fun to do at home or as a scout camp activity.  

Soap Carving for Kids

Materials Needed: 

• New, full-sized bars of soap
• Craft sticks 
• Sharp knife 

Before starting this activity, use your knife to cut one end of each craft stick into a point.  This will turn it into a carving utensil.  

By using craft sticks, even younger campers can try their hand at soap carving.  

For older kids, with good adult supervision, you may want to introduce using a pocket knife.  We really like this small pocket knife for beginners because the blade locks in place, helping prevent accidents.  

Simple Soap Carving

To start your project, use the point you made on the the craft stick to draw a basic shape on one side of your bar of soap.  (Ivory soap works best.)

Then, using the edge of the craft stick, slowly begin shaving pieces of soap away from the shape you drew.   (You can try using the shavings in this Ivory soap experiment.)

As you get close to the shape you are aiming for, you can begin taking smaller shavings off and using the point of your craft stick to add details.

You can use this activity to teach basic knife skills.  Start by making sure your child only cuts away from themselves when using their craftstick knife.  If you have more than one child doing kids soap carving, make sure they leave plenty of space between them. 

Basic Soap Carving Tips

• A simple pattern is best.   We chose a fish as our first attempt. 
• The best soap for carving is Ivory soap.  It is soft, easy to carve, and doesn’t crumble like some soaps do.  
• There will be a lot of soap shavings when you are finished.  Work outside over a plastic table cloth to make clean up easier.  The shavings can still be used for hand washing if you place them inside a soap saver.

This soap carving for kids activity is perfect to do at camp or at home.  

You’ll also enjoy these kids activities for summer:

• Duct Tape Sit-Upon
• Duct Tape Water Bottle Holder
• Cooking with a Solar Oven 

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Some of the most popular ideas are stem activities for kids.

This balancing craft stick toy is fun to make and allows kids a chance to learn about the center of gravity.  

Craft sticks are an inexpensive material to keep on hand for some fabulous kids engineering activities.  That’s why they are one of our favorite STEM supplies to have at home.

Kids have fun building with them, making towers, boxes, and other creations. 

You may also want to try a few structured STEM activities with craft sticks, like making a craft stick catapult or this rubber band shooter.

This activity is a fun twist to the classic craft stick balance STEM challenge.  

Balancing Craft Stick Toy 

Materials Needed:

• Jumbo Craft Stick
• Pipe Cleaner (Chenille Stick)
• 2 Clipping Clothespins
• Permanent Markers

Start by having your child decorate the craft stick with markers.

Color the bottom 1/3 of the stick a solid color for the pants.  The pipe cleaner will become the character’s legs, so there is no need to draw those on.  

Then draw on a shirt and face. 

For the shirt you can draw on arms, this is the easiest version.  Or,  use a small piece of pipe cleaner to make arms later.  

Draw a face.  If wanted you can even glue on tiny googly eyes.

Once the craft stick is decorated, it’s time to turn it into a balancing person toy.  

First, have your child try to balance their craft stick on its end.  Of course, it won’t work. 

You need to lower its center of gravity first.  

You can do this with your pipe cleaner and clothes pins.  

Start by bending your pipe cleaner in half to find its center.  Then open it back up.  

Wrap the middle portion of the pipe cleaner around your craft stick, approximately 1 inch from the end of the craft stick.  Twist it tightly so it stays on. 

It’s important that you leave an even amount of pipe cleaner on both sides of the craft stick when you are finished.    If needed, you can use scissors to trim off any extra that may happen on one side.  

Once the pipe cleaner is attached, clip a clothespin to each end.

Now try to balance your craft stick person.

Place its end on your finger tip, or someone else’s fingertip.  

It may take you a few minutes to get the stick person to balance.  You may have to slide the pipe cleaner closer to the end of the craft stick or bend the pipe cleaner legs some to get it to work. 

For another fun STEM activity that can be played with, check out our flying dragon. 

How Do Balancing Toys Work?

You are able to balance the craft stick on its end because you changed its center of gravity. 

In simple terms, the center of gravity is the point where the weight of an object is even on all sides.

Originally the center of gravity is located in the middle of the craft stick.   

Adding the long pipe cleaner legs and clothespins towards the bottom and letting them hang down lowers the stick’s center of  gravity.  This allows you to balance the stick on its end.  

Extensions to the Balancing Craft Stick STEM Activity

Can you get this to work using different materials? 

• Try substituting the craft stick with an unsharpened pencil.  Can you get it to balance on its end?  
• What happens if you replace the clothes pins with metal washers?  
• Try this balancing stick man activity to further explore the center of gravity.

If your child loves STEM activities like this balancing craft stick toy, you may also enjoy some of my other posts.

• How to Make a Rubber Band Boat
• Simple CD Hovercraft
• Make a Simple Pulley

The post Fun Balancing Craft Stick Toy STEAM Challenge first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

When you mix the fun of building with the power of rubber bands, you have an exciting hands-on learning activity that kids go nuts over.

This homemade rubber band shooter STEM activity is fun when the weather has you stuck indoors.

The simplicity of the design for this shooter means kids can easily build it themselves.  (With a parent’s supervision when it comes to using the hot glue gun.)

If your child loves playing with rubber bands as much as mine do, you may also want to check out our rubber band boat.

And, for another fun craft stick STEM challenge, try making your own balancing craft stick toy.

Rubber Band Shooter STEM Activity

Affiliate links have been provided below.  See my full disclosure for more details. 

Materials Needed:

• 2 Jumbo Craft Sticks
• 2 Regular Size Craft Sticks
• Clothes Pin
• Hot Glue Gun
• Mini Rubber Bands

Start by hot gluing the two jumbo craft sticks together, one on top of the other.   This will form your handle.

Then hot glue the two regular craft sticks together the same way.

Take the pair of smaller craft sticks and hot glue one end of them an inch from the top of the jumbo craft stick handle so the smaller craft sticks are perpendicular to the jumbo craft sticks.

Next, glue the clothes pin on top of the smaller craft sticks so that the end of the clothes pin that you pinch is lined up with the jumbo craft stick handle.

Let it dry completely.

To load your rubber band shooter, pinch open the clothes pin and put one end of a rubber band inside, closing the clothes pin to secure the rubber band in place.  Stretch the other end of the rubber band to the front of your shooter and loop it over end of the small craft sticks.

The extra inch left at the top of the handle is perfect for storing your mini rubber bands.

To shoot, press on the clothes pin to release the rubber band.

Remind your child to always aim at a safe target.

Although mini rubber bands don’t hurt as much as a larger rubber band, they can still be dangerous.  Never aim at pets or people.

Empty pop cans make fun targets that make a little “ding” when you hit them.

You can also use this rubber band gun for Nerf gun math facts and sight word practice.  

Want to sneak in a little more learning with this rubber band STEM activity?

When the rubber band is stretched it is full of potential energy.  When you press the clothes pin that energy changes to kinetic energy as the rubber band flies forward.

How far does the rubber band fly?  Use a tape measure and record the distance.

Can your child make it shoot further?

Will changing where the clothes pin is located on the shooter change how far the rubber band goes?   Try it!

Have your child design and build a new shooter and see how moving the trigger affects the distance.   They might just move it further back, so the rubber band has to stretch more.

Or, they may choose to glue the clothes pin somewhere entirely different.  Let them experiment with how the changes affect how the rubber band moves.

This homemade rubber band shooter STEM activity is lots of fun for elementary kids to explore.

You may also like these STEM projects:

• How to Make an Electromagnet
• Design a Cardboard Tube Marble Run
• Build a Leprechaun Trap

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The post Rubber Band Shooter STEM Activity first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

Kids love building things, and when you add in the chance to fling a bit of candy?  We are talking an instant hit!

Whether you are looking for a rainy day activity, awesome camp craft to do with scouts, or just something fun to do with your kids, this STEM activity is sure to be a hit.

Make your own craft stick catapults and let your child’s imagination soar.

Affiliate links have been used below. 

This is one kids STEM activity you will want to try!

For another craft stick STEM activity, try making your own balancing craft stick toy. 

Craft Stick Catapult

Materials Needed:

• Craft Sticks   (7 for each catapult)
• Plastic Spoons  (stronger spoons, like these, work best)
• Small Rubber Bands

To make future STEM projects at home easy, keep these most often used STEM supplies on hand.  

How to build a craft stick catapult:

• Stack 5 craft sticks on top of each other and secure both ends with a rubber band.  (We used some of the colorful loom bands that seem to be everywhere in our kitchen.)  This will be your crossbar.
• Next, stack 2 craft sticks on top of each other and secure one end with a rubber band.
• Carefully open up the 2 craft sticks and slide your stack of 5 in between them.
• Then lay a plastic spoon on top of the top craft stick and secure both ends of the spoon to the craft stick. (As shown in the picture above.)
• Finally, criss-cross one more rubber band around the area where the craft sticks intersect, holding it all in place.

Launching your craft stick catapult:

To launch your homemade catapult, simply hold one side of the crossbar while using one finger to push the spoon down and then — let go!

Extensions: 

Try experimenting with how many craft sticks you use for your catapult.  We tried using just 3 craft sticks for the crossbar (which caused the candy to not go as far).  We also found 7 craft sticks also didn’t work very well.

Try taking the criss-crossing rubber band off one catapult and moving the crossbar up on the catapult to see how it effects the distance.

You might also want to try using different candy pieces.   We found heavier ones didn’t fly as far, and smaller candy pieces flew further.

You could also use marshmallows, cotton balls, paper wads…  Let the kids have fun seeing what will fly the farthest!  We had a blast using marshmallow peeps in this catapult game.

You might find after a while that your child’s favorite toys get in on the action.

At our house the Imaginext knights had to join the fun, and soon it was a full-on attack on the castle!

We had fun learning about catapults, seeing what effect minor changes would have on our design.

You could easily use these fun craft stick catapults to talk about potential energy (when the spoon is held back) and kinetic energy.  

For older kids you could challenge them to design a different version of a catapult.

No matter what age, these craft stick catapults are definitely fun!

You may also like:

• Pumpkin Catapult 
• STEM Activity: Make a Paper Cup Phone
• STEM Activity:  Design a Boat that Floats
• How to Make a Pumpkin Pulley System 
• Make a Colorful Bracelet with Soda Straw Weaving 
• Engineer a Coffee Filter Parachute 

Originally posted November 11, 2014.

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This simple fairy craft turns out super cute!   And afterwards you can use them in a fairy race.

These craft stick fairies are cute and can be used in a fun fairy game once they are made.  

Fairy Craft

• Craft Sticks
• Clear Tape
• Permanent Markers
• Crayons or Colored Pencils
• Drinking Straws (You will need 2 sizes, one a bit wider than the other.)
• Fairy Wings (Make your own or download these Fairy Wings.)

Use permanent markers to decorate the craft sticks with faces and colorful dresses.

Then decorate your fairy wings with crayons and colored pencils.  Once the wings are finished and cut out, use a looped up piece of clear tape to stick the wings to the fairy’s back.

Cut a 1 1/2 inch long piece from one of the wider drinking straws.  Flatten one end of the straw and wrap tape around the straw and craft stick to secure it to the back of the fairy.  (See image below.)

To make your fairy fly, stick  one of the thinner drinking straws into the straw that is attached to your fairy, lay the fairy flat on the table, and blow.

We had lots of fun creating and racing our fairy craft as one of the fairy birthday party games for my daughter’s party.

And, if not everyone is a fairy fan, you can easily turn them into butterflies, dragonflies, or even a little dragon like my son did.  (See that red dragon on the left that my son made?)

Tips:

• Having trouble getting your fairy to fly?  Check to make sure the straw you are blowing in is only lightly stuck into the attached straw.  Also, make sure there aren’t any air leaks in the straws.

I hope your child enjoys this simple fairy craft as much as mine did.

You may also like:

• Flying Straw Rocket 
• Making Rock Trolls
• Straw Weaving Bracelets
• Awesome Camp Crafts

Our Favorite Kid Craft Supplies

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