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

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.

Hanukkah is a great reason to pull out your cross stitch fabric and thread and stitch up some fun seasonal cross stitch patterns.

If you have trouble spelling Hanukkah (I know I do!) you’ll want to stitch up the How Do You Spell… project from SKB Cross Stitch Design. This one includes a bunch of different ways to spell the holiday, along with some symbols like a dreidel and menorah. (Technically I think all the ways to spell it are “correct.”) The pattern includes full, fractional and bask titches, and measures 8.5 by 7 inches, or 21.6 by 17.8 cm. It has the date for 2004/5785 but you can easily change the year or leave that part off.

Another project with some fun word play is the Words to Live By chart from Sam Brie Stitches. This one includes Hanukkah related symbols and word presented crossword puzzle style, which is fun to stitch and to display. The design uses 10 colors and measures 74 by 103 stitches. It’s shown worked on 18 count fabric.

I may have shared these before, but the Hanukkah patterns from the Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery are so cute they’re definitely worth sharing again. Happy Hanukkah features a menorah, dreidels, gelt, stars and candles, and it fits in a 6-inch hoop. At 75 by 75 stitches, it comes out to 5.4 inches/13.4 cm on 14 count Aida or 28 count linen. They also have this cute little dreidel stamp cross stitch pattern, which is 39 by 49 stitches, or 2.8 by 3.5 inches (about 7 by 9 cm) on 14 count Aida or 28 count linen.

Works By ABC has a lot of great patterns for Hanukkah, but here are just a couple to get you started. The Rules for Dreidel design is fun for kids and adults and shows the different sides of the dreidel and what it means when you land on them. The stitch count is 62 by 94 and its shown worked on 32 count linen. It calls for three colors. I also like this menorah one, which measures 44 by 49 stitches and uses two colors along with coordinating seed beads. On 32 count linen as shown (equivalent to 16 count Aida) it measures 2.75 by 3.1 inches, or almost 7 by 7.8 cm.

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