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DIY Balloon Powered Cars You Can Make For Science Lesson

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This roundup is all about Balloon cars and making them. Not only do you get the thrill of engineering and developing the toy you get to play with it afterwards. This activity has so many opportunities for educational homeschool learning. STEAM is represented in all of these DIY tutorials. I have included different styles of Balloon race cars to give parents the flexibility of using the supplies they have on hand at home.

Science Sparks has a version of the popular Lego car that is powered by a Balloon here.   Frugal fun 4 Boys also has a lego version, this car is a simpler design so more suited to younger engineers.

This one by  Tots to Teens uses recycled materials making it the easiest one to source the supplies for followed by this one which uses a Juice Box and bottletops.   For a recycled water bottle tanker you will need this tutorial by pbskids.org

I love the design of this Race car, actually, it’s more like a drag car but you will need old CD’s does anyone still have those in the house?  This tutorial is a video and uses card board and milk lids a very simple design but has the same concept.Vroom Vroom with this simple box style car.

Don’t have the items? You can purchase ready to go Balloon Car kits too.

The Science behind it all –

A balloon-powered car is pushed forward by air escaping from a balloon. As the balloon fills with air, it adds more potential or stored energy. As the air flows from the balloon, the energy changes to kinetic energy or the energy of motion. Vehicles are powered by the escaping air from a balloon teach children Newton’s third law of motion. Minimize the drag and reduce weight to make the car go faster. Try running your car on different surfaces for speed too.

This video shows you the science, make your car and watch it here. 

Here are some video tutorials on making your own Balloon Car Too

 https://youtu.be/dR2C1GGJ-9o

You can pair this STEAM or Science activity with some story books too.

Race Car Children Book

If I built a Car 

Race Car Dreams

Check out our Pinterest boards for all the latest DIY craft finds as well as hand curated boards with a focus on Children, children at play and learning activities. 

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Christmas Ornament Cross Stitch Patterns

The other day I shared some cross stitch patterns with ornaments on them, so this time around I wanted to share cross stitch patterns that you can use as ornaments. It would be fun to do a whole tree in your craft room with cross stitch ornaments, or just add a few to your tree or give them as gifts.

These little quilt inspired cross stitch patterns from Flamingo Toes look like ornaments and fit in 3-inch hoops, which are perfect for hanging on the tree or using to decorate a gift. I love the pastel colors on these but you can use more traditional Christmas colors if you like.

This cute Christmas tree from Lagodargetoshop uses a single color and fits in a 4-inch hoop, but you could make it smaller if you wanted by trimming the last ornaments and gifts from the sides, or just stitch the tree without any other embellishments. Either way it’s a cute addition to your holiday tree.

Stitched Modern has a super cute collection of retro Christmas ornament cross stitch patterns from designer Gera. This is a printed pattern that will be shipped to you. Each pattern is about 40 by 56 stitches, or 2.9 by 4 inches/7.4 by 10 cm on 14 count fabric. To work the whole set you’ll need 20 colors of floss.

These snowflake ornaments from Our Little Handmade Home are each about 2.5 inches/6.4 cm when stitched on 14 count fabric, and they use a single color of floss. They are pretty in red but you could also do white on a blue or black background, or whatever suits your other Christmas tree decorations!

From the description it sounds like this set of vintage style cross stitch characters is presented as one large chart, but the photo from Sampler Antique Stitch shows each of them stitched up as their own little ornament, so it gets included here. You’ll find Santa and snowmen in different poses in this cute collection.