Junk Model Rocket

What you need

• a kitchen roll tube or a plastic bottle for the body
• a cereal box to cut fins and a cone from
• masking tape
• children's safety scissors
• crayons or paint to decorate

How to do it

1. Look at a rocket in a picture book, or draw one together, and make a plan: a long body, a pointy top, fins at the bottom.
2. Draw three fins on the cereal box card and let your child snip them out along your lines.
3. Curl a circle of card into a cone for the top, helping where it's fiddly, and tape the fins and the cone onto the tube.
4. Decorate it, count down from ten, and fly it round the house on its first mission.

Why it matters

Turning a picture in their head into a rocket they can hold takes planning, snipping and plenty of tape, plus a fix when the cone won't stay on.

What they're learning

Snipping card

Following a drawn line.

Joining with tape

Making the fins stand out.

Making a plan

Body, fins, cone, in that order.

What to look for

Notice them trying a new way to fix something on when the tape doesn't hold.

A tip

Sit beside them while the scissors are out and put them away when you finish. Children's safety scissors only.

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