DIY Balloon Powered Cars You Can Make For Science Lesson

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

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If you like repeating cross stitch designs, borders you can use on other projects or as bookmarks, florals and Japanese-inspired designs, you’ll want to check out 200 Japanese Cross Stitch Designs by Saeko Endo. This collection of 200 cross stitch charts is low on instruction but big on inspiration for those who are comfortable taking a chart and running with it.

The book includes a brief introduction to the needed supplies and basics of stitching, but mostly is just photographs of finished designs and the charts that go with them. The charts vary widely in size and there can be anywhere from one to six charts printed on a single page.

Many of the designs are repeating patterns, but the chart shows a larger version so you can see how the repeats go together. Each chart has marked what portion is repeating and how many stitches and rows it includes. Other than that the charts are not numbered, but there are darker lines every five rows to help you count.

The patterns all range from one to three colors, and some include half cross stitches or back stitching, but most are full stitches.

The book is arranged into categories of motifs: geometric patterns, retro patterns, traditional Japanese patterns, floral and fauna and borders and pictorial motifs.

My favorites are the Japanese designs, many of which are recognizable from woodcuts, kimono designs and traditional shashiko embroidery. You’ll find cherry blossoms, suns, knots, and simple line designs that would be lots of fun to stitch.

There are a few pages devoted to different ways to modify charts such as changing colors, changing the way to design is repeated, flipping and rotating designs.

Other than that you’re on your own for how you actually want to use these designs. Of course they can just be stitched and framed but it might have been nice to see some of the projects stitched and staged in a way you might use them in everyday life (repeating motifs as coasters, or a bigger design turned into a pillow, for example).

Sometimes it helps to see designs used in different ways to get you thinking about how you might use them yourself. If you don’t need that creative push, this is a fine book full of patterns you’ll have fun playing with in different ways.

About the book: 112 pages, paperback, 200 patterns. Published 2025 by David & Charles. Suggested retail price $24.99.

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Have you read?