The journey is the fun part, as your kid will discover while making — then launching — a homemade bottle rocket! Some household materials and a grown-up’s help are needed for this one.
What You’ll Need:
- Empty 1 liter plastic bottle
- paper
- duct tape
- modeling clay
- ruler
- thin cardboard
- X-acto Knife
- bottle cork
- nail
- bicycle pump
How To Make:
Step 1: Roll paper into a cone and wrap with duct tape completely to reinforce it.
Step 2: Tape the cone to the bottom of a bottle.
Step 3: Wrap a piece of modeling clay around the top of the bottle, and secure with duct tape.
Step 4: Using a ruler and X-acto knife for straight lines, cut four even triangles out of thin cardboard.
Step 5: Tape the cardboard triangles to the sides of the bottle, so that they are just below the bottleneck.
Step 7: Use a nail to make a small hole through a cork.
Step 8: Fill bottle halfway with water and inset the cork into the bottle opening.
Step 9: Find some clear space outside. Place the bike pump over the air hole in the cork and have a grownup flip the bottle over, holding the rocket so that the nose (cone) is pointing up and away.
Step 10: When ready, use the bike pump to build pressure in the bottle. After a few seconds, the rocket will blast off into the air!
