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.

After talking about the pirate themed chalk obstacle course the other day, I got to thinking about other easy, low prep games and activities you can do with kids outside. A lot of these are ideas I found on Pinterest that don’t link to blogs anymore if they ever did, but often that’s all the detail you need to figure out what’s going on.

First, a couple from blogs that are still alive. If you have a lot of trees in your yard or in your park, you probably also have a lot of sticks, so you can pretty easily do this stick maze activity from Mother Natured. Build the maze yourself or have one child build if for another. Either way it’s lots of fun and you can keep it built to use as a labyrinth or for pretend play.

If it’s hot where you live you might want outdoor activities that involve water like this fill the bucket relay game. The only thing you might not have at home is giant sponges, but this is still pretty low prep, inexpensive and lots of fun if you have two or more kids to play. Check out how to do it from The Resourceful Mama. And check out my post all about ice and water sensory activities for more ideas to beat the heat.

Make some x’s and o’s or use something you already have to be your game pieces (you can also just draw them on paper plates for a super fast version) and make a large tic tac toe board on the sidewalk. The bonus of reusable game pieces is kids can play with the same grid over and over, which is great if you don’t have a ton of space.

I also love the idea of drawing a big bullseye on the sidewalk or driveway and using beanbags or sponges to try to hit the target. If you have hula hoops you can also set them in a grassy area and have kids try to hit them.

Check out more fun outdoor games for kids from The Printable Princess. These are more for big groups of kids, but if you’ve got a classroom full these are good ones to have on hand for getting some energy out.

Do you have favorite outdoor games for kids to play when it’s hot? I’d love to hear about them!

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