N wanted to make a plane last night, but as he was describing his idea to me, I thought it sounded more like an X-Wing, and he was all, “Ya ya, a plane like X-Wing!” Erm, I’m pretty sure there’s no such thing, but okay, whatever you say.
He gathered the materials needed on his own, and was super excited, so I thought I would document it on the blog.
Materials Needed
– Five or six toilet rolls – Plastic bottle – Toothpaste box (or any other cardboard) – Scissors – Tape – Colouring materials/stickers (optional)
Instructions
1. Cut the toothpaste box (or any other cardboard) into four equal strips.
2. To make the engine, decorate two of the toilet rolls with orange tape, stickers, or whatever colouring materials you have. Alternatively, you can cut one of the toilet rolls into half, to make a smaller engine.
3. Decorate the bottle. This will be the body of the X-Wing. N chose to paste orange tape around the middle of the bottle.
4. Cut the cardboard strips shorter, then tape a toilet roll in the middle of a cardboard strip. Make two of these for the bottom wings.
5. Tape the two bottom wings to the bottle. Try to angle them slightly so that they form a slight inverted ‘V’ shape.
6. Tape a toilet roll at the end of a cardboard strip. Make two of these for the top wings.
7. Tape the top wings above the two bottom wings.
8. Tape the two decorated toilet rolls together to form the engine.
9. Tape the engine to the bottom of the bottle.
Have fun playing with your new X-Wing!
N and his new X-Wing last night
The twins wanted to pose like KorKor
Posing with his X-Wing at his “base”
I really liked how N came up with the whole design on his own, and how we were able to make it together out of recycled materials. It sure pays to be a hoarder of recyclable items (though C doesn’t agree with me on this), because it allows us to create fun projects like this whenever we want. I had to help him troubleshoot a little when his wings were too long and therefore ended up sagging, and I also helped him to paste the wings onto the bottle properly, because he couldn’t hold them down on his own, but it was mostly his own creation. Love it when he initiates craft projects, because this is definitely something that I wouldn’t have thought of on my own.